Cat Out Of The Box
by The Feline
Summary: Some new intruders have entered the prison, and the immediate impulse from the group is to attack. They would have, too, except for the fact that their leader had told them to halt. Cat wants them to watch over the newcomers because she doesn't want her people to have innocent blood on their hands. Things just don't turn out too well when a hunter finds a certain feline. (DarylXOC)
1. Day of the Epidemic

**Day of the Epidemic:**

"I'm glad that we finally decided to head to Georgia for a vacation, Lil," a woman around her early-thirties grinned across the Quality Inn hotel room to the other woman, who was about two years older than herself. "It's awesome that we were able to get a hotel in Atlanti- Atlanta." The other woman went to speak when the first continued before she could get the chance, "Yes, I know that I almost said Atlantic. Hush, you."

The older woman was in a pair of dark jeans and a red tee. Her hair was jet black, tinged with a purple-red hue in the sunlight. It was a few inches above her laughter-bobbing shoulders, framing her face. Her green-grey eyes were smiling as she looked at the younger woman from behind the black fringe. Her full lips hooked on a smirk as she shook her head.

"Whatever, feline," Lily smirked. "You wouldn't stop whining about a vacation. It was horrid when you and Ryder ganged up on me."

"Hey," the younger woman puffed out her cheeks in a quick pout but then broke into a smile again. "Just think, wolf butt. It's like when we were teens again. You, me, and Mary in one room and the boys in the other."

"More like Mary's in the other, too. She rarely leaves Ryder's side." The older woman shook her head, smile still intact, "And you still never gave up on that old nickname."

"Mary hates me," Cat said, fiddling with the silver necklace around her neck. She had completely ignored the last sentence the older woman had said. "I know she does. I don't like her very much either, though."

"She's jealous," Lily replied, crossing the room to where the younger woman was sitting on the larger of the two beds. There was a queen and a twin. The older woman sat down on the queen and wrapped an arm around the younger. "I mean, you two are really close and have been together for a long time. I can't think of a day you two _haven't_ been around each other. If I hadn't known any better, I'd think that _he_ was cheating on _you_ with _her_, and she shouldn't be saying anything because you both know your boundaries when it comes to each other. I mean, it's not like you two are making out or raping each other._._"

"We didn't go to the same college," she remarked about her statement.

The older one gave her a look, "Smart alec."

Cat grinned, "Yeah... but this is why you keep me around, too."

The door opened and both women leaned forward to see who was coming in, but their view was sadly blocked by the wall. Cat always hated when hotel rooms did that, putting the door in a narrow, claustrophobic hall with the bathroom being connected to it. It was stupid to her.

A small group came into the room consisting of three men and a woman.

Cat felt her lips tug into a slight frown at the sight of the woman. Her muddy brown hair fell in soft waves around her until it reached her lower back. She had outgrown her bangs when she turned nineteen, so they curved her face instead of covering a bit of her eyes like Cat's blond fringe. The woman was tall but not as tall as her, just an inch off. She wore a white summer dress to show off her legs and figure in her attempt to seduce Ryder's boyish mind.

It was amusing when he pretended to be too dense to notice how she'll purposefully show a bit more skin than usual or do her make-up a certain way. She always gets so mad that Cat had to step out of the room to hide her giggles.

One of the men, a tall lean one with dark hair, grinned when his light brown eyes met with Cat's bright blues. She smiled back lovingly to him, feeling a light warmth spread in his cheeks. He had been freshly showered and slipped into a black shirt and jeans. He made a beeline across the room to where the two women sat and pulled her to her feet.

"Aar_—_"

Her words were cut off by lips pressing against her own in a light kiss.

"Hello, beautiful," he said. "I've missed you."

"Awww," she heard the woman behind her saw.

"You're a brat," Cat pecked his lips once more before nuzzling her head into the crook of his neck as arms encircled her. She glanced over her shoulder to the other woman and stuck her tongue out. "Quiet, you."

"I can't help it," Lily smiled as another man, Hunter, also with dark hair walked over to sit next to her. She leaned against the blue-eyed man, their fingers lacing together. "You two are just too cute together."

"I'm gon' bite ya', wolf butt."

"Hey now," a familiar man's voice butted in, causing Cat to look over to the desk. The curly-haired man had a clear smirk on his lips to show playfulness, but his hazel eyes were cold as he watched the man that she leaned against. "If there's going to be biting here, then I want to join the fun."

"Ryder, I_—_"

There was a knock at the door.

"Why am I always being interrupted?" Cat groaned as she stepped out of Aaron's arms and headed for the door.

"Maybe you just weren't suppose to speak," she heard the third woman, Mary, say.

"_Stupid little..._" She let the words trail off before she opened the door to find an Asian male standing there, looking nervous as he held the pizza box sleeve in his hands and three liters of soda at his feet. Cat gave him a friendly smile to show that she wouldn't bite, "Hello!"

The pizza guy seemed to have relaxed a little because he smiled back, "Hi. Three liters of Coke and two large pizzas; one just cheese and bacon, the other being a garbage pizza?"

"Yeah, that's us." She looked behind her to where Ryder was lounging in the desk chair, "Hey, lazy bones. Toss me my wallet!"

"You sure you can catch it?" he had the black and blue fabric in his hand, shaking it at her.

She glared at him, "Just toss it before I come over there and beat you with it."

"I think I'd like to see the damage you can do, Cat," he winked at her, only to receive glares from Mary and Aaron, but tossed the wallet over to her anyway.

She caught it with ease and stuck her tongue out at him before turning back to the pizza guy, "How much, hon?"

"Twenty-three fifty," he replied.

"And who am I paying this lovely afternoon?"

The man looked at her like she was a new species, "What?"

"Your name, pretty boy," she rolled her eyes. "I want to know how I'm complimenting on the service tonight."

"Um..." He still seemed confused at the request, but he gave her his name anyway, "Glenn Rhee?"

"Nice to meet you, Glenn," she nodded, placing a twenty and ten in his palm before taking the two pizzas and handing them off to Aaron. She noticed Ryder crouched at her feet in his attempt to sneak the sodas away. She smirked and stamped down on his foot, which caused him to yelp. Her smirk softened to a smile as she looked to the wide-eyed pizza guy, "You can keep the change."

"Thank you," he smiled a little, blushing nervously.

It made Cat's grin widen and dip into her southern accent, "Yer welcome, darlin'. I wish ya' plenty a' luck on the rest a' yer deliveries."

Glenn the pizza guy walked away from the doorway, giving her a little wave on his way to the elevator. She returned the gesture before shutting the door and setting a glare on her idiot of a friend sitting on the floor, cradling his foot in his hands.

"You tryin' to highjack my rum, boy?" she put her hands on her hips in a haughty fashion as she bent a little to be almost an inch from his face.

He grinned, "Maybe."

"I'll stamp that foot again," she warned.

He made a disbelieving noise before getting to his feet and placing the three sodas on the desk, where Mary had been leaning casually against. He glanced at Cat and Lily, "Rum and Coke minus the alcohol, right, Cat? Wolf?"

"We want our rum!" they chanted together, causing the rest of the group to laugh while Ryder poured two cups of Coke for the women.

* * *

The rest of the night was spent with eating pizza, watching stupid movies on the television, and Ryder recording how fast Cat could down a liter of Coke. Lily and Hunter had curled up on the bed, nuzzling and snuggling up to each other. Mary was laying on Ryder, his arms folded behind his head and hers on his chest. Aaron sat on the floor, cross-legged, at the foot of the queen-sized bed with Cat in his lap. His arms encircled her waist as she buried her head against the crook of his neck once more.

Everyone was starting to fall into a comfortable slumber with their bellies full from the delicious pizza as dawn started to dust the morning sky with its warm colors...

"_AHHHHHH!_"

"What the hell is that?!" Lily shot straight up into a sitting position just as Mary fell off Ryder, and the bed, when he did the same.

"_Shit,_" he cursed. "Sorry, Mary, I got spooked."

"Whatever," she huffed with a glare.

"I'm going to check it out," Cat said, still half-asleep, as she started to get up just to have the arms around her tightened their grip.

She looked at the man she had been falling asleep on to find him staring towards the doorway, "No, you stay here. It sounded like it was in the hallway. I'll check it out."

With that, he scooped her up and placed her on the bed. Lily crawled over to the younger woman, watching Aaron move towards the door. Cat didn't like the feeling that began to boil in the pit of her stomach as she scooted closer to the older woman's protective form. She knew it wasn't going to be anything good.

They heard the door open for a moment, just a moment, before it was quickly shut again and locked followed by a flurry of curses from her beloved's voice.

"A-Aaron?" Cat asked, hating how the fear in her tone made her sound like a teenager again.

"_Quiet!_" he hissed, but it wasn't in a cruel way.

Every one of them went silent as they heard more screaming from the halls mixing with groans and gurgles. It didn't sound pleasant, and it made her want to vomit.

"_What the hell's going on out there?!_" Mary demanded, keeping her tone down to a whisper.

Aaron appeared from the narrow hall and went straight to Cat, gathering the confused woman in his arms. She could feel him shaking, feel his heart thundering at a horrifying pace. She tried to look in his eyes, but he refused to meet hers. He was refusing to show the fear in them, and she knew it.

"_Aaron,_" Cat cupped his face in her hands, speaking sweetly to him while keeping it down in case someone outside the room might be trying to listen in. "_What's wrong? What happened out there?_"

He finally looked at her, and she just wanted to bundle him in a giant blanket with her at the fear she saw in those light brown eyes. "_Cannibalism found its way into the hotel. I... I think it's an apocalypse. There were people with their arms ripped off_ eating_ other people._"

"_What?_" She heard Ryder come up behind her, knowing that his brows were furrowed in that confused expression he would get when he wasn't understanding. "_What do you mean by 'eating other people'?_"

She didn't like the cold look that her beloved was giving her dearest friend, "_What else_ is_ there to mean by it?_"

"_There's no such thing as zombies,_" Mary snorted.

"_If you don't believe me,_" he let his glare settle on the woman, which made Cat want to do a little dance when she saw the insulted expression on her face, "_then go check for your damn self._"

Cat felt eyes on her as she stroked the shaking man's cheek as an attempt to soothe him a little. She looked over to Lily, who had been silent during the little discussion, to find those grey-green eyes on her.

_He's shaking,_ she tried to tell the older woman with her eyes._ I don't like how this is going, and I've got a bad feeling in me, Lil. I say we get the hell out of here while we might have the chance_.

It seemed like she had somehow gotten the message because she gave a small nod. That's one thing that she loved about the close bond with the older woman. They didn't even have to speak to communicate. They were thinking the same thing most of the time anyway.

Just as Cat opened her mouth to voice her opinion, she saw Mary disappear behind the wall that hid the hall. Within seconds, she was backing up with a horrified expression on her face. She had probably peaked through the peephole on the door.

The bad feeling that was boiling a moment ago got worse when she heard the terror in Mary's voice.

"We... have to get out," she said with wide eyes. "We have to get out."

_No shit, Sherlock._ Cat wanted to roll her eyes, but she knew that the situation was too serious for it.

"I have to check," she said quietly, prying herself from Aaron's unwilling grip.

She went to the door slowly like the idiot blond in the horror movie where all the viewers are screaming at her not to open it. It was a good thing that she happened to be a somewhat _smart_ blond. Instead of reaching for the handle, she peaked through the little peephole in the door.

There was a man with his throat torn out and bleeding like a waterfall staggering passed the room towards someone who had fallen, already dead with another person eating from their stomach. It wasn't a pretty sight because the man's eyes were white, and his skin was already rotting. She could smell him from the spot she was standing.

She released a breathy cough at the stench.

And froze.

The man paused from his travel to the victim. His nose raised in the air slightly, taking a whiff before his head turned towards the doorway. Her heart started to quicken its beat at a scary pace.

He staggered over.

She held her breath.

He tried the handle.

She felt her heart stop.

Completely frozen.

_Oh, no._ She thought. _Oh, no!_

The door, thank _God_, was automatically locked without the access key card.

The bleeding man wiggled it a little more before losing interest due to his lack of a meal. He staggered off after the sound of a woman screaming in a room down the hallway.

Thankful for being barefoot at the moment, she slowly backed away from the doorway on the balls of her feet. It kept her steps quiet compared to her normal stomping pace. She could feel everyone's eyes on her as she came into their view again.

_How the hell could this have happened?_ Her eyes were wide as she tried to figure out a logical explanation._ The zombie apocalypse was suppose to just be a myth because of all the crap that humans were doing to the environment. There's no way that the government could have done something like this, right? Maybe it's a parasitic fungus like in those video games.  
_

"Well?" she heard Hunter ask, scattering her worrisome thoughts away.

She turned to Lily, completely ignoring the man, "Get those swords out, woman. We're probably gonna' need them."

"Good thing you pestered me about bringing them," she nodded, getting off the bed and pulling her suitcase from under the bed.

As Lily dug out her blades, Cat had to keep herself calm and keep the others from freaking out if this really was the apocalypse that they use to always hear the teenagers talk about, "Alright. Everyone, I know you have a portable backpack, so grab that and pack it with only the necessities: food, water bottles, medications, and all that fun stuff."

They all looked at her like a new species.

She narrowed her eyes and put emphasis on a single word, "_Now._"

"What about our bags in the other room?" Hunter turned on her.

"If we get the chance," she replied, "then we might be able to sneak in to get what you need. Other than that, we'll have to pick what we can gather."

"Feline's right," Lily came to the younger woman's side. "We have to get to my big girl and get out."

"All right," Ryder nodded. He turned to his girlfriend, "Mary, you got an extra pack?"

Cat made a beeline for the closet and pulled out a black duffel bag with an Ed Hardy fish design on its sides just under the zippers for outside pockets. She yanked out the clothing from it, figuring that she could always take a new outfit from a store if she needed to. She just grabbed her favorite sleeveless hoody that Lily had bought her for Christmas a few years back and slipped it over her white tank top. She rolled up Aaron's old blue flannel shirt that he had given her to sleep in and put it in the bag. She rolled up a pair of clean jeans and shoved it next to the shirt. She scattered her clothing around, looking for important bits like granola bars and pain killers.

She went straight to the mini-fridge in the room, grabbing all the plastic bottles and aluminum cans inside before relocating them to her duffel.

Ryder went around the room, gathering little items that he found that might be useful and looking for another way out of the room. Mary broke into helpless tears, repeating over and over that they were going to die. Hunter was throwing a fit. Lily was setting up her own bag, throwing the clothes that would cause the most space out. Aaron kept watch over at the door.

Cat finished packing her bag, being sure to put her black and silver _Springfield 1911-A1 Mirco Operator_ in the deep pocket of her hoody, and went to the window.

_I knew that dream was a bad omen,_ she thought quietly, feeling the velvety texture of the curtain,_ but I would have thought it would be like this... We have to get out of here, or we really will die this time around. It's a damn good thing that I had everyone bring a gun with them._

Everyone had agreed that they'd rather make it a road trip than an actual plane ride. They could stop where they wanted on the way, get what they wanted for food, and they all would chip in for gas. They had decided to take Lily's silver Ford Wind Star because of the space that the big girl provided. The night before they left, Cat had a chilling dream of someone's body on the floor, bleeding out. They were screaming that they had gotten bit.

Now Cat understood what that dream had meant.

She pulled the curtains away just enough for her to peek through, allowing the morning light to leak through into the room. Taking a quick breath, she looked out the transparent glass.

And immediately regretted it.

People were running around, screaming and bleeding. Cars were zipping through the streets, running some people over or crashing into another vehicle on the rush to get out of the city. The people that had gotten infected by the sudden epidemic were chasing and ripping the uninfected. Bodies filled the roads, but some were coming back to life and others being eaten.

Cat felt her body start to shake as one of the fallen had rose again. A woman ran over to the rising man, running to hug him or see if he was okay, and he attacked her. Bit right into her throat. She fought against him, screaming something, but she had grown too weak too quickly as the blood spurted out of her neck.

She quickly shut the curtain.

A hand fell on her shoulder.

She flinched, whipping around to see her friend there.

"Sorry," he said, removing his hand. "How's it look out there?"

"Hell worthy," she told him, a grim smile forming on her lips.

He sighed, "_Great_. That's just what we need."

She patted his cheek, "We'll get through this. We just need to stick together. Remember how everyone went crazy a couple years back about this? Well, we'll just have to stick to our instincts and work with what we can get."

"How can you stay so calm through this?"

"Well, I watched a lot of horror movies in the past, remember?" she smirked, but he only raised an eyebrow. "If everyone's in a panic, then there has to be at least one person that has to be in charge or we'll end up like what's outside. Lily and I are going to have to keep our minds straight."

Ryder shook his head at her, "At least you know your way with horror movies."

"And cop shows," she pointed out, using her index finger for emphasis.

"Feline," she heard Lily call, "we're ready to go."

"Let's move then."

* * *

With one of two swords in her hand, Lily had the other, Cat stood right behind the older woman. She had given her gun to Aaron for his protection, and the fact that his own was in the other room. Ryder and Hunter broke the legs off the desk to use for weapons. Mary had a small black pistol in her hand even though she was shaking harder than an excited chihuahua.

It made Cat a little wary of her gun usage abilities.

Then again, she had never been very good with her own aim either.

"Y'all 'member those zombie movies?" she looked to the other behind her. They all nodded. "Zip your lip and aim for the head, or it ain't dead."

Once again, they all nodded.

"We're clear," Lily told her as the older woman slowly opened the door.

They filed out quickly and quietly.

Cat was surprised that there were very few bodies in the hall, but the blood splatters told her that many more had been running around in their attempt to escape. The ones that were left behind made no movement, and that's what scared her the most. They could suddenly attack when they let their guard down for even a moment.

"Guess the _Call of Duty_ and _Left4Dead_ nerds were spending the night here," she heard Mary mutter as they moved to a room a few doors down.

"_Shhh,_" Cat hissed at the woman.

Most of the doors were open, but that didn't mean everyone had checked out. She knew how things liked to pop up when least expected. Relaxation was no longer an option.

Hunter quickly swiped the card.

It beeped that the room was now unlocked.

Everyone froze as he opened the door a little before it locked again.

"_No one's coming,_" Aaron said under his breath from behind her.

They quickly moved into the room and shut the door.

The guys scurried around the room, keeping their steps quiet but fast, as they gathered their bags. Clothes were tossed around to lighten the weight. Cat heard guns clicking, and she saw that they were checking the ammunition in the weaponry. She watched them nod with approval before slipping the weapons into their pockets.

The guys' shouldered their backpacks and looked to the women for approval. Ryder and Hunter kept their desk legs for quieter assaults. Aaron grabbed his old hunting knife.

"Alright," Lily spoke up, running a hand through her hair. "We're going to get to my big girl and drive somewhere, anywhere."

"Let's try to get to the woods or something," Cat offered. "A place with small populations, or, even better, none."

"Sounds good to me," Ryder nodded.

"Mary," Cat looked over to the shaking woman. She was paler than usual, and it looked like she was going to be sick. "_Mary._"

The woman looked at her the second time her name was called, eyes widened and terrified.

"Go check the door."

With a tight nod, she went to the door.

After a moment, she looked back at them and said, "We're clear."

Cat adjusted her duffel with the strap going from her left shoulder to her opposite side. Mary moved out of her way as she went straight for the door, wrapping her hand around the handle.

"Ready?" She looked over her shoulder to see them nodding. "Good."

She opened the door and walked through, being closely followed by her little pack.

* * *

They kept their movements quick and quiet as they went through the halls of the hotel. They could still hear people screaming in pain and fear before the sounds would die into watery gurgles. People outside were shouting, guns were being fired, parents called for their children, vehicles purred furiously as they drove out of the city. Glass broke. Doors exploded.

Her nerves were hay-wired to the point that it felt like her body was pulsing. Her heartbeat pounded against her ribcage to escape from the epidemic through her chest. She knew she had to keep a calm exterior, even if her insides were demanding to run like the rest of the world.

She looked over to Lily to find the older woman had been watching her with concerned eyes. She knew.

A groan made them stop in their tracks.

Everyone pushed themselves against the nearest wall as something shuffled near them. Cat peaked around the corner to find one... two... three... five infected staggering in the hall. Further down, she could make out a glass door with the glowing EXIT sign above it. She held up her hand to the group, not letting her eyes leave the infected even once as she bent each finger like she was counting to show them how many.

"_Is there another exit?_" Mary whispered.

Cat turned back to look at her, "_Mary, I know you're scared, but it's either we get this over with or risk running into_ more_ if we try looking for another way. There's only five of them and six of us. We can do this._"

Her chest rose and fell in a heavy sigh before her eyes met the older woman's steady gaze, "_Fine._"

"_Okay,_" she nodded to the other woman then turned to the rest of them. "_Silent weapons only. Only use the gun if it's absolutely necessary. These are no longer people, they're infecteds now_. _They will rip you to shreds if you give them the chance to._" She made sure to look at each pair of eyes that stared at her, "_Don't. Let. It. Happen._"

With a nod of understanding, they turned to corner.

Cat whistled, catching the infecteds' attention, as she knocked a knuckle against the wall.

They started staggering towards the group, arms ready to grab whatever they can get.

Lily was the first to strike, slicing a woman's head in half with her blade. The each of the three guys took out one of the infected, smashing the heads in on the floor or against the wall. Cat was the one to finish off the final one as it waddled over to her with a limp. She sent the blade of the sword straight down the undead man's head until it reached his neck. She pushed him off with her foot.

"_Ahhh!_"

A woman's scream.

A _familiar_ woman's scream.

She whipped around to find a rotting woman sinking her teeth into Mary's neck. Her eyes wide with horror as she heard the others call out the brunette's name. Blood was pouring down her body, staining her white dress crimson.

_No, no, no, no!_

"Get the fuck off of her!" she heard Ryder shout.

Cat could only watch as Ryder lunged forward, sending the desk leg straight through the infected's forehead. The dead woman fell away from Mary, who was trying to stop the bleeding on her neck. The brunette's face got paler than it normally was, and the blood on her face was the only color other than her eyes. Those eyes were growing dull, too.

She fell to her knees.

"Mary... Mary?" Cat hurried over to the bleeding woman. She started rambling, "Mary, are you okay? I mean, I know you're not okay, but... but..."

"Shut... up," the woman watched with her dark eyes meeting blue. Her blood had completely soaked into her clothing, staining the pale woman. "Just... Just get out of here."

Ryder grabbed her bicep, "C'mon, Mar. You're coming with us. I'm not going to leave you here like this."

"No..." her words were becoming breathless from the blood loss. "You're going to leave. I'll just be dead weight at this point."

"But, Mary_—_"

Ryder's words were interrupted by the dying woman's glare on the blond, "You better... take damn good care of my man... or I'll haunt your ass to the grave just... just so I can beat the shit... out of it."

Growls started to echo further down the hall that they had come from. Ryder was going on about how he wasn't going to leave her there and that there should be a cure soon. Lily and the other two men were watching Mary with somber expressions, knowing what was going to happen. Cat just shook her head, trying to hide tears for the dying woman.

"Cat," she heard Mary say. "Just take... him and go."

With salty tears bubbling in her eyes, she looked to Mary once more. She could see the seriousness in her face and understood.

Mary leaned against a wall and closed her eyes. Her chest rose and fell heavily for a moment before it stopped moving at all.

"Ryder..." she hated how her voice was starting to shake, but she knew she had to pull him away. "Ryder, sweetie, we have to go. We have to..."

Her words trailed off when hazel eyes met hers, scaring her with how dark they turned. He seemed like he was ready to kill her in that very moment. It was a look she had never seen on him before, and it terrified her.

Growls and gurgles grew louder.

"_Dammit,_" Cat swore.

She grabbed his arm and yanked with all of her power in one fierce pull. He was taken by surprise at her strength, being pulled to his feet. He fought with her for a few moments before Aaron and Hunter joined in, grabbing him by each arm. Cat went in front of him, pushing against his chest as he struggled to get back over to Mary's corpse.

Lily held the door open as they pushed him out of the hallway and into fresh air. Infected started turning the corner just as Cat looked back at Mary's body. It was just laying there like she was sleeping despite the bloody chunk bitten off her neck.

"_She doesn't deserve to become one of these sad creatures,_" Cat muttered, pulling her gun from her back pocket and shooting the dead woman right in the forehead.

She ran out of the building and into the forest behind it to join her group.

And to comfort her grieving friend.


	2. Newcomers

**Present Day:**

A slow smile graced her lips as she perched herself on the prison's roof. Looking through a sniper's scope, she could see eight men out on the concrete near the basketball hoops. They were surrounded by the bodies of the fallen infected prisoners. The sunlight warmed her back as she watched them.

Two of them were standing toe to toe with each other, so it was obvious that they were the leaders of two different groups. Judging by outfits, five out of the eight were prisoners, and the other three weren't from the area. It was similar to her own group.

The prisoner group was most likely being led by the one in the sweaty white tank top with what looked like the top half of his uniform wrapped around his waist. It had been a common fashion amongst most of the dead prisoners that had been walking around. She couldn't tell if he was Mexican, Spanish, or even Italian. She _did_ remember seeing his facial appearance from a file in the main office within the prison, though. His name was Tomas. There were three blacks, two with brawn builds, and a scraggly-looking, red-haired white within the group. She easily identified them as Oscar, Big Tiny, Andrew, and Axel.

The other group held two whites and a black. The leader's hair was slicked back with most likely sweat and grease, his clothes were grimy and gross like the other two. The African American had a gun ready to fire if the other group attempted anything. Then there was the man with the crossbow. It looked like a _Horton Scout HD 125_ from her perch. There was something about him that she couldn't take her eyes off of. Maybe it was just the leather vest with angel wings on it.

"See, Cat?" The younger girl next to her vibrated excitedly, "I _told_ you that I saw newcomers on my watch."

She pried her eyes from the crossbow handler to look at the teenager, "Good eye, Lexi."

The girl brushed her strawberry red fringe from her green eyes as they shined at the praise. She had just turned seventeen when Cat found her at a deserted high school months ago, where as she as already in her early-thirties. The older woman was taller than the girl by a couple of inches, but she could've been seen as her younger sister. She had recently found a pair of dark blue jeans, an old green tee, and a black jacket to wear that wasn't completely covered in gore. In a way, she kind of reminded Cat of a modernized Strawberry Shortcake.

"How many did you see earlier?"

"About ten, ma'am. They've got two kids with them, a boy around twelve and girl around my age. Three women were seen minus the girl, an old man, and the three you see down there plus an Asian male."

"Ah, hell." Cat bit her lip, "Two kids?"

"Yes, ma'am."

The older woman looked back towards the groups to find that they had already retreated back to the building. Without looking at the younger girl, she told her, "Keep an eye on them when you can. I want to know every move they make, especially if they get close to our own. We don't know these people, and we don't know if we want to."

"Of course..." the girl nodded her understanding. Her voice then turned a little playful when she said, "So, you like that crossbow boy, right?"

Her head jerked back to the teenager, looking at the younger one with big blue eyes. Her blond, medium-length hair whipped from one shoulder to the other in the sudden reaction. Lexi had a smug little smirk on her lips.

"We don't know whether or not they're a danger to us yet," Cat explained with a scowl. Blue eyes narrowed on green, "Why would you say that anyway?"

"He seems like your type is all," the teen replied simply as she stood from the spot she had been crouched in. "If things don't get heated between you and Ryder, anyway."

"What's _that_ suppose to mean?" She snapped, a streak of heat filling her cheeks as she tossed the gun at redhead. "We're just friends, you brat!"

The smirk stayed on the teenager's lips as she sauntered towards the door that lead back to Cell Block E. They had cleared it out, burning the bodies when they found the chance. Luckily, Cat had been able to snatch some handcuffs from the officers that they killed and cuff the double-door handles before sticking a thick plank of wood through them. It was just a safety precaution to make sure the infected wouldn't get into their cell block and start chewing their people up like an American with bacon.

After looking back once more at the area the groups had just been standing, she stood up. Cat hopped down from the ledge of the roof, placing a hand on the hilt of her sword that was attached to the leather belt on her black cargo shorts that came to her mid-calf. It was a warm day, so she had left her hoody with inside, stalking into the sunlight in a deep purple camisole.

"He _was_ kind of cute, though," she muttered before following after Lexi.

* * *

"Well," Cat looked at each of four out of six of her group members, "Lexi was right. There's some humans in the prison."

"_Dammit_."

Her attention turned to the voice, finding her best friend throwing his hat on the ground. Ryder glared down, fists clenched, at the brown cap as though it were the worst thing in the world despite the undead roaming around. His curly brown hair had turned into a messy mop of tangles since the world had gone to Hell. His jeans, a brown tee, and a pair of hiking boots stained with grime and gore from the battles they had encountered.

"Calm down, Ry," another female of their group, Sabrina, told him, placing a hand on his shoulder. He shrugged her off, though.

She made Cat tense for some unknown reason, so she always kept herself from getting too close to the other woman. Her wavy black hair flattened from being unattended to and unwashed for so long. She was about the blond's age, just a year younger, and she was shorter. She tried to be the peace keeper amongst the group, but it never worked. She had a good shot but not always a good attitude unless she was trying to kiss up to Ryder.

Ignoring her wounded expression as she walked away, he looked at their leader with his dagger in one hand and his pistol in the other now, "Cat, is there any chance of danger from them?"

She could only shrug, "Honestly, it seems like they're going to have more trouble dealing with themselves and the undead. There's two groups from what I saw: one of five prisoners and one of three unknown men. The unknown may have more friends within the building from what Lexi's telling me. I heard something about Cell Block C."

Another male of their group, Lenny, spoke up with his southern-tinted voice, "That's probably where they're hiding out. We should get them while we've got the chance. There's no reason to let us risk it."

His tall, forty-something year old figure started to move towards her to get to the door. Cat put a hand against his chest to bring him to a halt. His dark eyes glared down at her, but she stared right back with her bright blues. She was challenging the bald man, who was all about his brawn build. His shirt use to be white, but it had started turning greenish-brown in different spots from the dried blood and sweat. There was a gun in the front of his jeans and a shotgun strapped to his back. He use to look like a biker with all the leather, but that had gotten destroyed since the beginning of the epidemic.

"We don't know if these people are a threat or not," she told him. "They have no idea of our presence in this building, and I'd like to keep it that way. These are _not_ your marine days."

"Who died and made you leader, huh?" His deep voice growled.

Ryder came right to her side, glaring at the other male with hazel eyes, "You know that Cat saved your ass plenty of times from those things. She's the main reason why your still alive and even _in_ this group, Len. She's stayed up during the night so that you could get sleep for when we move. She runs to scavenge for what we need: medicine, food, weapons. So, yeah, she's the leader of this damned group, and you know what_—_"

Cat put a hand on her friend's shoulder to stop him from going any further. He looked at her for a moment, but he nodded his understanding. There was no point in getting into a fight with each other when the newcomers, or the infected, could possibly hear them.

She met Lenny's gaze, "If you don't think I'm fit to lead this group, then you're free to leave. We won't make you stay. Let's see how long you survive on your own with how you choose to do things."

He closed his eyes for a long moment, sighing heavily, "I'm sorry. I just don't want things to turn out like they did last time."

"I understand that." She gave him a sympathetic look, hoping that it would get him to understand what she was saying, "We're not going to let it happen, either. If something gives us a clue that these people are bad, then it's free game. We don't kill the living unless they give us a reason to. We're not going to turn into blood-lusted murders, taking possibly innocent lives because of the fear in this world."

He nodded, "Alright."

She looked passed him to her redheaded teen, "Lexi, you know what to do."

"Aye," she saluted sloppily before heading back to the roof with her _Harris M86_ sniper rifle over her shoulder.

It was the kind that normally a military soldier would carry off into war. It was also the only sniper rifle the blond could scavenge without being attacked by a horde of the undead. The girl had a good shot, even better with the scope. Her father was a sniper in the wars, and he taught his little girl how to defend herself. Smart call for the man before he turned and she was forced to shoot him.

"Lenard," she addressed the muscle head next, making him flinch by using his real first name. "Can you go get her a couple magazines from the weapon cell? I want her to have plenty of ammo in case something does happen."

"You got it, Cat." He jogged off a few cells down and disappeared into it.

Just as she was turning to speak to Ryder, a moan echoed the room. Cat groaned, smacking her palm against her forehead in irritation, "Jesus, Asha and Tyler are _not_ raping each other again, are they?"

He gave her a look that told her that was exactly what they were doing.

She pushed passed her friend, towards the stairs that led to their cell on the second floor. A hand snaked out, latching onto her wrist. She turned back to find Ryder looking at her with a bit of a weary expression.

"Look, Cat," he told her, "I don't like hearing it as much as you don't, but they were newly weds before all this bullshit happened. Let them have a little fun so they don't start sinking into depression."

"I understand what you're saying, but all that moaning might be heard by one of those things," she replied. "It's better if we catch them with their pants down instead of one of _them_."

His lips pursed together like he was trying not to smile, but he didn't say anything.

Cat chuckled, knowing what he was thinking, "Yeah, that didn't come out right. You understood what I meant, though."

"Sure, sure." He laughed at her as he released her wrist.

"Ugh," she shook her head at him. "Even after the world goes to Hell, you still make time to be a pervert."

A cocky smile graced his lips, "You know it amuses you, woman."

"Yeah, maybe a little," she smirked before she headed up stairs.

Cat walked from the top of the stairway to about five cells down. The barred door was open, not like it would've made any difference. The two figures on the lower bunk bed were really going at it. At least they had a blanket over them, and that the group had cleaned the mattresses when they first got to the cell block.

She made a disgusted face before she called out to them, "Asha. Tyler."

The two froze as though they were suddenly hit with a paralyzing injection. They turned their heads towards her as she leaned against the entrance to the cell. They were in their twenties, a couple years fresh out of college. Cat's arms were crossed as a tanned, blond male rolled off of a darker female. She shook her head, not bothering to watch as Asha hurried gathered the blanket to cover herself. Cat knew her face was almost as red as Lexi's hair without needing to even glance at her.

"Now," she told them, "get yourselves dressed. You're lucky that I caught you instead of the infected."

Tyler had a sly smile on his lips as he rested his arms behind his head, "I'm thinkin' that you keep comin' in here to watch 'cause you're a lonely, old bitch."

"_Tyler!_" Asha hissed, smacking her hand against his chest roughly.

Her heart twisted itself a little at his words when the thought of Aaron came up. It was still a touchy subject to her, and everyone normally tip-toed around her about it. If any one of them had wanted to know about him, they would ask Ryder when she wasn't around.

He must have seen a sullen expression fall over her face because he spoke, "Look, Cat, I'm-"

She smirked at him before he could even think about it and let her southern drawl leak a little, "Tyler, don' you be _tellin'_ me that you're goin' to _apologize_."

His head jerked back, but he recovered quickly with his own smirk, "Nah. Not to you, anyway."

"I can still out shoot you in a draw, remember that, pretty boy." Cat turned to Asha, shaking her head, "Why the hell did you marry this fool?"

She smiled shyly, the blush turning her dark cheeks to a coppery color, "He's nice to me, even if he's mean to everyone else."

"Whatever," she sighed. "Like I said, get dressed. We've got humans in the building."

Tyler sat up, reaching his hand through a small spacing between the beds and the wall. He retrieved a double-barrel shotgun from the top bunk, frowning at the news of more people.

"Any of them being Lily and the others?"

Cat shook her head in response, hating the twist in her chest deepening at the name.

"Need me to take care of 'em?" His brown eyes glistened with blood-lust.

"_No,_" she glared at him. "You're as bad as Lenny when it comes to this, I swear. At least _he_ listens to me... Sometimes."

The smirk returned, "I only listen to one lady, Cat. That's the one layin' next to me in bed."

"Just be ready in case something does happen, got it?"

"Got it," Asha nodded to her. "I'll keep Tyler on a tight leash."

"Might want to keep it tighter," she suggested, smiling playfully at the guy's frown. "We don't know how these people are, so we'll be wanting to keep out of their sight. If you two find anything suspicious when you're _not_ raping each other,_—_"

"It's not rape if she likes it," Tyler interrupted, grinning like he had won a golden medal.

Cat ignored his idiotic remark as Asha flushed another lovely shade of red, "_—_then let me know what's going on. I'm going to do my best to keep this group alive."

"You got it, boss lady," he saluted.

"_What is it with everyone saluting me today?_" She grumbled as she turned her back to them. "Also, try to keep the moans down."

"Can't help it when you're having fun."

Just as she was about to walk away from their cell, someone shouted, "_Hey, Cat!_"

"Ah, shit. What the hell is it _now_?" She groaned, stepping over to the rail to find Ryder looking up at her with a hand cupped against the side of his face.

"I'm gonna' take Ty and the girls to the showers, okay?" he attempted to run a hand through his filthy mop, but tangles captured his fingers in the process. "Lord knows we need it."

She waved the back of my hand at him, "Go 'head. Just make sure you bring them back alive, and no peeping, either."

He smirked, "You're no fun."

"Would you rather me chop off your manhood because my girl told me that you were lookin' at her?" she smiled innocently.

"Jeez, that hits right at home, Cat," he dramatically put a hand over his heart in a hurt fashion, but she knew he was only messing around. "When did that girl take my place as your best friend? 'Sides, you know the only one I'd be looking at is you."

"Oh, she's a kid, man. So, suck it up." she rolled her eyes, ignoring the urge to want to hit him at his last statement.

He stuck his tongue out at me in response, "Mean!"

"That's the life of the leader, my friend!" Cat laughed. She turned back to the cell, where Tyler was pulling up his pants and Asha was slipping on a shirt, "Hey, Ty?"

"Yeah?" he quirked a blond eyebrow at her.

She crossed my arms, "Mind going with Ryder to take the girls to the showers?"

"No problem," a smirk graced his lips.

She sent him a _look_, "And remember that Sabrina _and_ Lexi are going to be in the showers, too."

"Fine, fine. I'll take them."

"_Thank_ you," she smiled before heading over to her own cell.

It had been awhile since she got to just sit down on the bed and think about what was going on. Cat figured that it could have been a good thing since it kept her from looking weak in front of the others. Ryder would sit with her every once in awhile and they would go over memories from when they just were kids running the streets.

She missed the other part of their group, Lily's half. They've been separated ever since they found that man on the roof in Atlanta, where Cat was forced to saw his arm off to keep him from being eaten by the infected.

_What was his name again?_ she questioned quietly, intertwining her fingers on her lap._ I had run off to scavenge while Ryder and the others waited at our little hideaway. Poor Lily, she looked like she was going to be sick when she was wrapping up that man's stump of a wrist. Hope that poor bastard's still alive somewhere. Or maybe it'd be better to be dead in this world? I don't know...  
_

"Cat, we're heading out," Ryder called again, bringing her out of her little daze. "You want to come with?"

"Nah," she called back. "Someone's gotta' watch the cell!"

She looked towards the doorway, flinching when she saw Lenny leaning against the frame. He spoke with his eyes on her, "I could watch the cell block. You look like you could use a good shower. You've been through a lot since this started."

She ran a hand through her greasy hair, pushing through the tangles, "It's not much more compared to everyone else, Len. I'll be fine."

"Cat, c'mon," he frowned. "Just go take a shower. You'll feel better. We all know how you're startin' to get stressed out."

"You're tellin' me that I stank?" She quirked an amused eyebrow at him.

The frown faded into a small smile, "That's exactly what I'm saying."

"All right, you win, baldy," she grinned as his frown appeared again at the nickname. "I'll go wash the stank away while you play prison guard."

He flexed his muscles in response, "I can take pretty good care of this place."

"Yeah, yeah," she waved him off.

"Last chance, Cat!" Ryder called once more.

She shouted back as her grabbed my sleeveless hoody and walked out of the cell, "Alright, alright! I'm comin', jeez."

After a quick thank-you to Lenny, she hurried after the group as she slipped her favorite sleeveless hoody on. She locked up the the main cell before walking over to the double doors that led into the hallway. Cat waited a moment for everyone to pull out their weapons to strike before she took off the cuffs and removed the board.

"Quick and quiet," she told them, flipping the hood over her head to cover her face. "Usual formation. Boys up front, girls get the middle, me in the rear. Ready?"

She looked over her shoulder to see that they had their non-gun weapons raised, already in line. Ryder and Tyler up front with Lexi and Asha right behind them. Sabrina stood behind the space between the two girls. Each one of them nodded to her.

She pulled one of the doors open to let some of their sunlight leak into the dark depths.

No moans or groans were heard. No movement in sight.

Clear.

She waved them in as they flicked on their flashlights. The males went through, then the three females, then herself walked through the doorway and shut the sturdy door. She did _not_ want to rick leaving that open for anyone or_ thing_ to stumble in.

"Alright," Cat spoke loud enough for them to hear but quietly enough for_ only_ them to hear, "let's go."

* * *

The halls were quiet as the guys led the girls through them. The infected were nowhere to be see at the moment, but that didn't mean a second of safety. They could pop up anywhere at any time. They always had. Even just seeing one could mean a horde of them were nearby, and the six of them would be in deep trouble if that happened.

"_Haaaa!_"

A wave of battle cries echoed the hall.

"The fuck was that?" Tyler asked, looking towards the back where Cat was.

She scowled, "I don't know, but we're going to have to move faster. I don't want to run into a horde on the way over. _Move._"

"I second that notion," Lexi told him with Asha and Sabrina nodding their agreement.

"All right, let's_—_" Ryder cut himself short at the sound of an infected's growl behind them.

Cat whipped around, unsheathing her blade, and sliced the damned thing's head in half. There were a few more shuffling towards them down the hall.

She looked back at the front, but nothing was coming from the direction. Her gaze fell on the two guys as her grip tightened in the black and blue hilt of her blade, "Get the girls to the showers. _Now._"

"_We're not leaving you here, Cat,_" Ryder hissed.

She smirked, "You're not. I'll be right behind you guys like always, but we have to keep moving before more show up. I don't know who started the damn screaming, but that can't be helped now. So, move."

"Cat," Asha looked at her with worried eyes. She said nothing more as the older woman turned back to find that one of the infected had gotten closer than she would have liked.

"Tyler, grab Ryder. Asha, grab Lexi," Cat ordered, knowing she received a tight nod from the couple and that Sabrina would have no problem leaving her for infected dinner. "Go quiet and fast."

She struck her blade straight through the forehead of one that had gotten near her personal space. Using her foot to push the dead infected, the use-to-be human male slid off the metal neatly. She could hear Ryder struggle against Tyler as she walked closer to a few staggering ones. She sliced through them easily, letting their bodies fall where they had once stood.

Once she heard the retreating footsteps, Cat grinned and leveled her blade, "Alright, assholes. I've got some stress to relieve, and you're going to be my therapy session. Let's dance."


	3. Prison Bait

Daryl just stood there in the hall with Rick and T-Dog as they watched the prisoners do some kind of street-fighting shit on the walkers. The three shared glances that meant they were all thinking that the group in front of them were a bunch of idiots. They were basically hitting the things everywhere else except the brain. One of them was even stupid enough to hold a walker's arms back while another beat his stomach with a pipe, dropped the pipe, then started _punching_ the walker.

What the fuck were these guys on?

Did they not hear a damn thing him and the others told them?

What was with this prison riot bullshit?

The trio killed the walkers that the prisoners had been beating up and pulled the group away from the open doors. Rick gestured for Daryl to make the demonstration, and he easily obliged.

"It has to be the _brain,_" Daryl drawled out as he shot a walker in the forehead with his arrow. "Not the stomach, not the heart."

More started to shuffle into the opening, hoping for a new meal.

Daryl looked back at them and repeated himself to make sure that the idiots understood this time, "_The brain._"

"I hear ya'," the Axel guy said. "The brain."

The one that called himself Oscar, or something like that, slammed a hatchet into one of the walkers that had stumbled closer, "Like that?"

"Uh-huh," the redneck grunted, keeping his knife ready to strike.

Axel sent an iron pipe through a walker's eye socket. Rick went up and grabbed one's throat, stabbing it through the jaw.

"Stay in tight formation," Rick ordered. "No more of that prison riot crap."

A small herd of the walkers entered the hallway, but the group quickly attacked the bastards. The prisoner group got into a quick rhythm of hitting the head and killing the brain. It was a good test for them to see if they could start surviving in this new world, even if Daryl didn't care for the prison leader.

At least until someone screamed.

Daryl killed a final walker, but he noticed that some were retreating back into the hall from where they came. He let the curious thought leave him for now as gun shots rang out. He looked over to find that Tomas guy holding the gun in that gangster stance with the weapon turned sideways. Rick was staring at the prisoner leader with a disbelieving expression.

Worried that the retreated walkers might have been coming back, Daryl looked over to the opening in the hall. Nothing was coming, but he swore he could have heard the faintest shouts about something inaudible. Walkers couldn't shout...

Could they?

They grunted and groaned, but he had never heard one shout. The voice sounded pissed off instead of fearful or in pain from the walkers ripping whatever it was apart. It sounded more like it was trying to lead the undead beings away from them.

But the prison had been abandoned when they arrived. It was void of any living human life, filled to the brim with shuffling walkers. They were able to clear out the little school yard that the prisoners would have their recess at, but there hadn't been any signs of human life other than the prisoner group.

Then again, they hadn't believed there were any survivors until they found the group...

He would have to take a quick look around when he gets the chance.

As the two leaders were sharing some kind of weird stare, he looked back over to the noticed that Big Tiny pulled a hand away from his shoulder, and it had blood on it.

The damn walker got him.

"Let me take a look," Rick told him. "Daryl, hand me that flashlight you've got."

He obliged without a word and watched as Rick looked over the guy. There was a nasty tear in his left shoulder blade. The cloth and skin was jagged around the ripped wound. It wasn't a pretty sight, but it was better than what most of them have seen. It didn't didn't change the guy's fate, though.

Rick shook his head as he took the light away from the infected scratch.

"I'm telling you," Big Tiny turned to the group quickly, "I don't feel anything. It's just a scratch."

Rick seemed unable to look at the guy, so he stared at the ground instead, "I'm sorry, man."

"I can keep fighting!" he pleaded desperately.

"You cut that that old guy's leg off to save his life," Andrew offered, gesturing at the other prisoner.

The ex-sheriff seemed to have gotten a little frustrated when he pointed at the guy's shoulder, "Look at where the bite is."

"_Guys!_" Big Tiny started to shout his panic that mixed with his own frustration, "I'm _fine!_ Just..." He looked at Rick directly, "I'm fine. Look... Look at... I'm _not_ changing into one of those things."

"Look, man, there has to be something we can do," Oscar begged. "What if we just lock him up?"

"Quarantine 'im," Axel offered.

Daryl shared a look with Rick for a quick moment as the hunter kept his crossbow leveled with his shoulder. He kept it as a precaution in case those retreated walkers_ did_ decide to return to get a meal after their distraction was gone.

"We gotta' do _something,_" Andrew told them. "Why you just standin' there? We gotta' save 'im!"

"There's nothing we can do," Rick told him directly.

Shaking his head, the shortest of the prisoners clutched his bloody baseball bat in his hand, "You son of a bitch..."

Big Tiny went to say something again, but the prisoner's words were cut off by Tomas hitting him in the head, which knocked the large guy straight to the ground. It made Daryl and Rick flinch at the sudden impact on the guy. Tomas looked at Rick for a moment before the prisoner leader started rapidly hitting the fallen prisoner in the head. He hit the dead man more than what was needed because his skull got crushed and mixed with the torn skin on the floor. Big Tiny's destroyed brain was oozing out of the head now.

Blood was splattered everywhere. It covered the walls and Tomas like rainwater. The hunter shot the man a dark glare when the blood got on him, too.

_What the hell's wrong with his fucker?_ Daryl's mouth fell open slightly as he looked at Tomas, backing up a little. _He doesn' seem to give a damn about this group a' his. If one goes down, then they'll get the same fate as this guy_.

Tomas started to walk off and, for a short while, no one moved because of his actions. Rick heaved a heavy sigh and gestured for them to follow after the man. Daryl stayed a back though as they filed out of the room, looking once again towards the open hall. The little thought he had pushed away earlier was now beginning to peck at his mind.

"Daryl?" Rick looked back at him in question.

He nodded to the man as he readied his crossbow again. He didn't trust Tomas after what he just saw, not like he really trusted him beforehand. Daryl would be willing to shoot an arrow straight through his head if he decided to turn against them. The moment he turned against them.

They tailed after the rest of the group, following them from the rear. The group clung to their tight formation as T-Dog led the way through the narrow hallway that was only big enough to fit two people next to each other comfortably. Tomas had been covering the rear before the hunter and the ex-sheriff took over.

"You see the look on his face?" Daryl asked Rick, keeping his volume high enough for only him to hear the conversation. He knew that Rick understood he was talking about Tomas. "He makes one move, just give me a signal."

Rick didn't say a word as he moved a little further ahead.

* * *

T-Dog had opened up a door ahead, which ended up leading into a laundry room. The entire group did a quick look to make sure that no walkers were lingering in the room anywhere they couldn't see before standing in front of another set of doors. It was a pair of steel double doors with a white EXIT sign in red letters above it.

The hunter picked the ring of keys off his hip and tossed them to Tomas, who was standing directly in front of the doors while everyone else circled around him. With the metallic sound scraping against concrete, the keys slid against the prison leader's foot.

"I ain't openin' that," he said clearly, looking from the hunter to the sheriff like they were mentally incapable.

Rick obviously wasn't in the mood to deal with him when he said, "Yes, you are... 'cause you wanted this cell block. You're going to open that door. Just the one, not both of them, 'cause we need to control this."

With Rick's flashlight pointed at the door, Tomas picked the ring of jingling keys off the ground. Daryl noticed that he glanced at Andrew for a moment before going over and unlocking the door. He had to fiddle with the keys for a moment before they heard a metal screech.

"You bitches ready?" Tomas looked around, pretending that he was the top dog around.

Daryl kept his crossbow ready and set with an arrow as Tomas yanked on the door, but it failed to open.

He gave another yank, and it failed, too.

"I got this," he said.

With a swift movement, he pulled both doors open easily. Tomas quickly shuffled towards the back of the group as walkers started entering the room.

"I said _one door_!" Rick roared at him over the groans and growls.

"Shit happens!" Tomas quickly replied.

The group quickly attacked the walkers. T-Dog stood in front of Daryl, fending off the nearing walkers, as he reloaded his crossbow. He was able to make a good few hits while he was at it until he saw Rick fall over with a walker on him.

"T, they got him!" he pushed Tomas out of his way to the sheriff and stuck the walker in the head with his hunting knife. Daryl pulled the dead prisoner off Rick and helped him to his feet just as the battle was over.

The prison leader said some kind of excuse that the hunter didn't quite catch, but he kept his crossbow ready to shoot at him. Daryl was just _waiting_ for Rick to give him a signal to shoot him.

"Yeah. Yeah, I get it," Rick heard the guy at least. The sheriff shifted from one foot to the other, giving the prisoner a smile that wasn't too friendly, "I get it... Shit happens."

After a moment of silence, Rick sent a machete into Tomas's head just as Andrew took a step forward and shouted, "_No!_"

He used his foot to push the dead prisoner off his blade. Andrew sounded a battle cry as he charged at the sheriff with his baseball bat raised. Rick sent his foot to the guy's stomach and pushed him back, too.

"Easy now," Daryl aimed his crossbow at the guy, who had attempted to get up but froze when he realized the danger he was in if he moved.

He ended up figuring out how to get up and bolting into the open doorway that the walkers had just come from in his hopes to get away alive.

"I got him," Rick told them, running after the escaping prisoner, as Daryl moved his aim to Oscar.

"Get down on your knees," the hunter glared at him. Oscar held his hands up in defense, obliging to the order, as he set his weapon on the floor.

"We ain't had no affiliation as to what had just happened," Axel said, trying to save his own ass with T-Dog holding a gun point to his head. He looked over to the other prisoner and gestured to the hunter with a nod, "Tell 'im, Oscar."

Oscar just shook his head, "Stop talkin', man."

* * *

The prisoners just remained silent until Rick returned alone, and when he did, the sheriff was not in a good mood. Daryl didn't blame him either with how their leader had tried to kill him a few times. He had walked back into the door and placed a gun against Oscar's forehead.

"Now what the hell was that all about?" Rick glared at him.

"We ain't had nothin' to do with that," Oscar told him.

"You didn't know? You _knew_!" He was still breathless from his run, but he called for Daryl and pointed his gun over at Axel as the hunter unsheathed his knife and held it to Oscar's throat.

Daryl didn't quite catch what the sheriff had said when he pointed the gun at Axel, but it struck fear through the prisoner.

"_Sir,_ please! Please listen to me!" Axel had started crying as he spoke, "It was _them_ that was bad, it wasn't us!"

"Oh, that's _convenient_."

"You saw what he did to Tiny," the prisoner tried to defend himself and Oscar. "He was my _friend_. _Please,_ we ain't like that. I like my pharmaceuticals, but I ain't no killer. Oscar here..." He kept rambling on, begging for his and his friend's life.

Rick whipped around and pointed the gun at the other prisoner's head, staring at him for a long moment before speaking, "... How 'bout you?"

"I ain't never pleaded for my life," Oscar said bravely, or stupidly, even with a gun to his head and a knife at his throat, "and I ain't about to start now. So, you do what you gotta' do."

* * *

Cat flinched when she heard the screech of a metallic door move. She instantly moved into one of the cells, jumping over the body of a dead infected male. They had been killed with a bullet to the forehead before her group had even got to the prison, so she figured that the officers decided to put them down before they turned. A mercy killing.

She clung to the wall, staying hidden amongst the thick shadow the cell had provided for her. She listened to the footsteps and heard an unusual noise. She didn't like it.

_ How the hell could the infected have gotten in here? I could have sworn I locked the damn thing up when I came in! _She chewed on her lip in thought._ Shit, this isn't going to turn out well, is it?  
_

It was as she was clinging to the wall that she felt extremely grateful that she always had a habit of shoving things in her back pocket. The small ring of keys made no noise since they were being pressed against the fabric.

"Oh, man," a man's voice spoke, which caused her to flinch once more.

The infected weren't suppose to talk, which meant that she was in a room of humans.

Being stuck in a room of humans was worse than just being with the infected. Humans were somewhat smarert compared to the corpses walking around, and they sometimes knew how to play with weapons. That, too, wasn't a good spot for her. Especially since every single human in the state of Georgia most likely took the opportunity to get a gun for his/herself.

_Fuuuuck... _Her mind whined at her, making her want to face-palm but didn't dare risk the noise.

"I knew these guys," the mystery person spoke again. After a small silence, his voice rang out once more, "They were good men."

_Good men my ass,_ she glanced at the body of the man in front of her. She knew that some of them might have been prosecuted for things that they might not have done, but she also knew that there were some that should have been locked in a cell with the infected trying to reach in with some of the things they had done to get them put in a mere prison.

"Let's go," another man's voice said.

"So, you just gonna' leave us in here?" a third male spoke.

She slid towards the opening of the cell to see how many men were actually down there or if her ears were playing with her. She only saw four. She saw two of the prisoners, the red-haired Axel and the tall Oscar, along with two from the other group, the leader in the cop outfit and crossbow hunter.

She felt her cheeks flare at the sight of him. She blamed Lexi for popping ideas into her head, but she couldn't help it now that she got to _really_ see the guy in person... Well, from her spot in the shadow, anyway.

_Good_ Lord,_ he is gorgeous,_ she thought with wide eyes. She knew her Southern accent was leaking into her mind, but she didn't care. _Officer Friendly over there ain't too bad either, but _damn_, Robin Hood looks like he could knock a few heads. Prolly got them country girls all over 'im. Oh, dear God, Lexi's going to love this.  
_

"Man, this is_ sick,_" the third man, Oscar, spoke again, making Cat snap out of her thoughts and flush into a nice shade of pink at what she had been thinking in the middle of being in a room with other people in it.

"I'm locking down this cell block," the second voice belonged to the officer. "From now on, this part of the prison is yours. Take it or leave it, that was part of the deal."

She watched as the officer headed back into the dark hallway from where they came.

"Ya' think this is sick?" She froze at the hunter's voice. "You don't wanna' know what's outside."

Neither prisoner replied.

"Consider yourselves the lucky ones," Officer Friendly said, making her see that he had stopped just before the hall.

"Sorry 'bout your friends, man," the hunter told the two before following after the officer.

_Aw, he's kind of sweet, too._ A small smile spread on Cat's lips before she realized that she was _still_ stuck in the cell with two other humans. It was going to be fun at trying to go unnoticed by them and returning to her group so that they knew she was still even _alive_.

Ryder was probably throwing a royal fit about her absence while Tyler and Lenny were probably trying to either block the doors, pin him down, or both. Lexi was probably gluing herself to her scope for any signs of her. Asha was probably getting into an argument with Sabrina, which was another reason Cat loved Tyler's wife.

"Word of advice," Cat flinched, the smile completely disappearing, at the new voice. She looked over to find another man, one she remembered seeing when the two groups were toe-to-toe with each other outside, looking into the cell block from the gate, hidden by shadows, and frowned at not being able to have spotted him sooner as the prisoners looked at him, "Take those bodies outside and burn them."

With that, he left the block, too.

There was a long silence before Oscar spoke, "C'mon, man, let's get these guys out of here."

"B-But, Oscar," Axel looked like he was about ready to burst into tears, "these were..."

His words trailed off like he either didn't want to finish them or didn't know how to. Oscar put a comforting hand on his shoulder, and the redhead nodded to him.

Cat listened for their feet to start shuffling towards the ground level bodies before she slipped out of the cell. She crouched and waddled on the balls of her feet to the small gateway that split the cell block in half. Quickly, she went through the gateway and sat on the cold concrete, pressing herself quietly against the boxes that were between her and the fencing.

_Okay,_ she evened her breathing to where it was barely heard,_ the only way out without being seen it to get to that doorway over there._ Her eyes watched the barred door just a little ways ahead of her. _The only problem is that I have to be quiet, and I've never been one to be quiet.._. _Shit_.

Cat waited for the footsteps of the two prisoners to fade away from her before she took a deep breath and ran for the door in front of her. She tried to keep her steps quiet by staying on the balls over her feet, and it gave her a boost in speed. She threw open the barred door, walked through, and closed it back up before quickly heading into the darkness of the hall.

The blade at her hip hissed as it was unsheathed in case one of the infected were to appear.

She picked out the little flashlight she had in her pocked and flicked it on. She let her ears listen into the silence for a moment to confirm that there were no groans or shuffling feet coming towards her. The scent of death lingered throughout the entire prison, but Cat was never able to get use to it. She always had a more sensitive nose compared to typical humans, and it sucked in this case.

At least the coast was clear so far.

So far.

She continued down the hall, hating how the horrid scent of dead infecteds were raiding her lungs like it was their own little invasion. It made it hurt to breathe in some moments, which made her sit against the cool concrete walling and place her head between her knees. She never stayed there long, though. It was too much of a risk to stay in one spot for long unless there was something really strong between the infected and the human.

"Alright, Cat," she told herself, relieved that the southern accent faded away, "you have to relax. If you keep going like this, you're going to pass out. Those infected would just_ love_ to make a meal outta' your dumb ass."

She paused once again, shaking her head at herself, "Great. Now I'm talking to myself like there's another person here. Yep, I haven't lost my mind _at all_." She rolled her eyes as she sat down at a three-way intersection. She grumbled irritably, "If you had any mind to lose in the first place."

Her eyes were starting to get heavy from the exhaustion that she had put herself through to get the infected as far away from her group as she could. She hadn't really eaten that much either, having given her half of her ration to Lexi despite the smaller girl's objections. Her body needed energy to move, but she just didn't have it at the moment.

"Quick rest," she told herself, "then I get back to moving."

She did a quick look around to see an unmoving officer sitting against the wall just a short ways away. She mustered up what was left of the energy her aching muscles could give to get over to the infected. She looked him over, seeing nothing appealing on him until she saw what was _next_ to him. It was one of those defense shields that the FBI and all those other crappy organizations used to protect them from bullets during a raid.

She pointed her blade just under the helmet of the officer as she carefully reached to grab the shield. She _really_ didn't want to take the chance of the dead guy scratching or taking a bite out of her when she was trying to get something to protect her.

That would've been a little _too_ ironic for her taste.

She ripped the shield from his dead hand and waited a second in case he might have tried to make a move.

He didn't.

With an overly relieved sigh, Cat slid down the wall across from the dead infected. She pulled her knees to her chest, propping the shield against her shins. She put her blade back in its sheath before she pulled a hunting knife out of her black combat boots that she had stolen from a store shortly after the whole mess started.

She looked up at the ceiling and smirked, "Lily, if you end up getting your ass killed out there, I'm dragging it back, kicking it, then damning you to heaven, woman."


	4. Fumes

"I'm gonna' go for a walk," Daryl told Glenn, shouldering his crossbow, after Rick had disappeared after his wife to talk.

The Asian frowned at the statement, "What?"

"I'm gonna' go for a walk," he repeated. "Let Rick know in case he's back 'fore I am."

"You're not going to stay here?" Carol walked over, wiping the blood off her hands from changing Hershel's bandages. "Where are you going?"

The questions were starting to aggravate him, but he knew Carol had been worrying over him a lot. It seemed like he was the one to cling to since her daughter had gone missing and then found at the farm. In some moments, though, it was a bit overwhelming.

"I'm jus' gonna' go for a patrol to make sure nothin's walkin' around 'ere," he scowled.

"Alright," she sighed, watching him with weary eyes. "Just be careful, Daryl. We can't afford any more accidents like this one, and I don't want you to get hurt."

"Ya' worry too damn much, woman," he told her before walking off.

He left the cell block and headed towards the area he had first heard the strange shouting. He let his grip on his crossbow release so he could flick on his flashlight, and he had his hunting knife ready in case he needed to strike a walker. In the world that they were now living in, it was a damn good thing that he had been a hunter.

Daryl glanced around, taking care to look deeper at the shadows of the dark hall. It was quiet, but walkers seemed to love appearing when it was least expected. He continued on until he got to the end of the hall where Big Tiny had been killed because of his bad scratch.

_Sorry, man,_ he thought quietly, gazing down at the body of the large man.

He exhaled heavily before going deeper into the hall where he had seen the earlier walkers retreat to. He wanted to know exactly what caused them to fall away from a dinner that was waiting for them. He was going to do his all to protect the group he was in. They had lost too many people as it was.

He had taken it hard when they found Sophia in the barn as a walker. She had been a sweet little girl that didn't deserve to die the way she did. He wanted to be the one to find her and bring her back to the safety of her mother, especially after all the shit he went through to look for her.

Dale ripped open by that damn walker, and he had given the old man a mercy killing to the head. Shane, even though Daryl never cared for the bastard, got killed by Rick. Andrea had been attacked by that herd the night they left the farm, there was no way she could have survived it. One of Hershel's daughter's got bit and was left behind.

He figured his brother was dead by now. It had been one of those thoughts that just fell on him after he saw that damn image of Merle in the woods_ during_ his search for the little girl.

* * *

After a ways into the dark hall, he came into one with windows shining bright sunlight in. He looked further down to see a walker growling and gurgling over something. Maybe it had found a new meal, like a rat or something.

"I tol' you to git the _hell_ off me, ya' piece a rottin' _shit_!" the female's voice startled him. It was strained like she was trying to keep quiet but not seeming to work with the situation. The southern accent grew thicker with each word she spoke, "God_damn_, didn' yer momma ever teach ya' assholes any manners towards the ladies 'fore ya'll died!?"

_How the hell did she even get in here? _he wondered, furrowing his eyebrows at the scene in front of him. _We were suppose to be the only ones here other than that damn prison shit group. Did we miss her during our search, or did she sneak in 'ere when we weren't lookin'?_

He stalked a little closer to the female's voice as she was shooting off random arguments with the walker that was trying to reach for her. Daryl hid behind a nearby wall to see that there was a woman sitting with her back pushed against the wall. Her feet were up against one of those shields that T-Dog had been carrying around to keep the walker just out of reach. She was trying to reach for her knife that had somehow slid out of her own reach.

He should have turned the other way.

She should have been allowed to get herself killed with that big mouth of hers, but he didn't want to have the blood of a possibly innocent woman on his hands. Hell, it was a woman in general. Not many could fend for themselves in a world like this one.

Not only that, but he could see a few more walkers shuffling towards her from down the hall.

"_Ah, shit,_" he grumbled.

He quickly assembled his crossbow, took aim on the growling walker, and fired an arrow straight into the thing's head. The woman's head stared at the fallen walker for a moment before her head snapped in his direction. A black hood was covering her face, making it hard for him to tell what she looked like. She snatched the knife from the ground and held it against the inside of her forearm, positioning herself for a fight.

"I ain't gon' hurt ya'," he glared at the defensive female. He was trying to approach her like he would with a frightened animal, except he would have shot the animal with an arrow by now.

The woman made no reply to him as she yanked out the arrow from the walker's head and threw it at his feet. The growling down the hall grew louder, causing Daryl to look passed her.

They were coming up right on her, slowly but surely.

His eyes went back to the stranger to find her putting the knife away.

_The fuck's wrong with her?_ Daryl felt his eyebrows furrow in confusion as he snatched the arrow off the ground. _How the hell does she plan on killin' 'em without a damn weapon? Using her hands? Is she fuckin' suicidal?!_

He watched, utterly confused, as the woman spread her arms out, "_C'mon_, you sons a' bitches. You want a new snack, then come get 'er!"

The small herd of walkers growled and quickened their pace a little. Daryl should have left the dumb bitch where she stood, at least until he saw her turn her back to the incoming herd. The sunlight hit her face, revealing dark blond strands matted around her pale face, and their eyes met.

Ocean against sky.

"_When I say duck,_" she hissed under a hushed tone barely loud enough for him to hear it, even with his hunter's ears, "_you duck. Understand?_"

"What?"

Without answering him, she unsheathed a sword from a hilt at her hip. The woman dashed straight towards him with the blade raised, and he swore it was aimed for his head. He was just about to reach for his own knife when...

"_Duck!_"

His body reacted faster than his mind did, and he dropped straight to the ground in a crouch. Her shoes stopped just in front of him, being followed by a gurgling growl then the sound of a body hitting the ground. He did a quick glance behind him to find a walker lying dead on its back.

"Get on your feet, Robin Hood," she snapped, spinning on the ball of her right foot to slice the head clean off of a walker that had shuffled a little too close. "Unless you want to become an infected's meal."

"Fuckin' bitch," he glared at her, jumping to his feet and grabbing his own hunting knife. "Wouldn' even be in this mess hadn' you been hollerin' so damn loud. What the hell's with tellin' 'em to come get ya'?!"

"Now's not the time for talkin'," she said, grabbing his wrist. "C'mon, I know where to hide for a bit. Get your ass in gear."

He tried to yank away from her grip, but she was stronger than he expected. It was like an iron bracelet latched onto him except warmer. He wasn't use to a woman telling him what to do anymore, and he sure as hell was going to snap at her about manhandling him. She didn't seem too bothered with his struggle as she quickened her pace, putting distance between them and the walkers.

_Who the fuck is this chick?_

She made a sharp turn, making him jerk in the process and lose a partial bit of his balance. It didn't stop the woman from continuing on. Actually, it seemed to have made her go _faster_ than before.

They ran down the long hall that was barely lit by the florescent light bulbs that dangled from the ceiling by a single thread. Bodies of dead walkers were pushed against the wall like someone had made a path for them before they had even gotten near the area. He could still hear the walkers behind them, but they sounded farther away than before.

He spared a glance behind him, but he didn't see anything other than the hall that they had already passed through.

The woman made another sharp turn suddenly, but this time he was pulled into a dark room that smelled of nothing except death. He heard her make a choking noise before a metallic door groaned until it shut, which was shortly followed by the click of a lock. They were completely swallowed by the pitch blackness.

He had no idea where the hell she had dragged him off to, but he figured it was probably a janitor's closet or something with the smell of the different fumes around them.

"_Jesus, why the hell did you have to take a nap at a time like that?_" he heard her say in a scolding hiss, but he could tell that she wasn't talking to him. "_You were only suppose to rest your eyes for a few moments and get to the showers. Now you're in some deep shit, girl._"

Was someone else in the room?

No, it was only her when he walked into the hallway.

She was talking to herself?

"_Alright, Robin Hood,_" she told him, "_stay quiet for a few minutes. I won't attack you as long as you're willin' to give me the same._"

"_Why the hell did you drag me here?_" he growled the question at her from under his breath.

He could hear the amusement in her hushed tone even though he couldn't see it on her face, "_Would you rather have been left behind to be infected bait while I got away? Sorry, but I don't roll like that. You saved my ass, and now I've saved yours doubled. As repayment for the second life saving, you keep the fact that you saw me silent._"

"_Yer gon' use blackmail 'gainst__—_"

He was cut off by a hand covering his mouth, muffling the rest of what he was planning on saying. He was just about to elbow whatever the hell it was when her voice hit his ear. What the hell happened to the agreement they had just made?

"_Shhh,_" he felt the warm breath against him. "_Quiet and listen._"

He knew better than to thrash around with walkers possibly being able to hear it, so he listened for a moment. He could hear growling and gurgling just outside the door. The hand over his mouth moved so that two of them could move his head towards what seemed as the doorway since light was leaking in from a thin crack on the floor. A thick shadow was blocking some of the lighting.

* * *

The infected outside the door had lingered around longer than Cat would have liked, but it left eventually. Not only was she locked in an old closet with Robin Hood, but she was starting to get dizzy from the multiple fumes, expired and not. She bumped her shoulder against the crossbow wielder to make sure that he hadn't moved from the spot she had last checked.

He hadn't.

_Goddamn it, Cat,_ she swore at herself._ You were the one that said you didn't want them to know you were there, too. There better be a damn good reason that this happened, or I'll throw a royal fit later! Sabrina's going to love Lenny and Tyler attacking me about this later.  
_

Her knees were starting to turn to gelatin as the dizzy spell strengthened. She pressed herself against the cool concrete walling, letting herself slid down until her butt hit the floor. She let out a small "_oomph_."

"_You alright?_" he whispered, keeping his voice quiet, and she could feel his eyes on her. "_Ya' didn't get bit, did ya'?_"

"_I ain't bit,_" she growled lowly. "_I have a strong nose, and these damn scents are making me dizzy._"

"_You gon' be alright?_"

She was surprised to hear a bit of real concern in his voice, even if he was trying to hide it. Cat's always been good at finding the hidden feelings of someone. She pulled the fabric of her hoody over her nose, hoping to block out the chemical scents with her own, "_I'll be fine once I can catch my breath. I just need to find a scent stronger than the chemicals._"

She felt like she was tilting in the darkness of the room, and her mind was growing fuzzy.

"_Ya' sure yer gon' be okay?_" he asked again. She heard a strange noise of something being moved and figured it was the crossbow on his back. "_Yer leanin' 'gainst mah leg._"

"_Oh,_" she hadn't even realized, "_sorry..._"

_This isn't going to be good,_ she told herself as she rose back to her feet. _The fabric's too thin to keep the scents out. I have to keep myself awake somehow. I can't allow myself to pass out in a room with a stranger. I have to get back to my people as soon as possible..._

She didn't like how her legs were shaking or how it was becoming a struggle to stand on her own two feet. She clamped a hand down on the man next to her, hoping that she had grabbed his shoulder, and used it for balance.

He flinched at her touch.

Of course he did.

She was unknown to him.

_Crossbow boy is a strong one, though. I can feel the muscle through his shoulder._ She would have slapped herself had she not been in the presence of another person or as loopy as she was._ This isn't the time to be thinking about that!_

"_The hell are you doin', girl?_"

"_I'm trying to keep my balance so I can check if the infected are still roaming around_," she replied. "_If there aren't any, then you better book it before they come back._" Just as she released his shoulder and took a step towards the door, she lost her balance, "_Shit!_"

A hand reached forward, just barely grabbing the back of her hoody and yanking her back against a strong build before she could have fallen on her face. Her body felt like it was suddenly made of lead, becoming too heavy for her to keep control over. An arm had found a way to wrap itself around her waist to keep her standing up.

"_You sit on back down,_" he said to her, helping her sit up against the wall again. "_I'll check for the walkers._"

"_If there aren't any, then you book it,_" she repeated to make sure he understood. "_Turn left at the doorway and head straight down until you get to the intersection, then turn right. You'll end up where we were earlier, understand?_"

"_What about you?_"

"_I know my way 'round this place. Once I catch my breath, I'll disappear,_" she hoped that he would plan to leave her in the closet and return to his group. "_Don't worry about me. Just get to where you're going, don't give it a second thought... Remember your debt to me._"

He didn't respond to her as she listened to his footsteps start to walk away from her. It was a bad idea, but she couldn't stop her heavy eyelids from drooping shut. The fumes were starting to become too much for her mind to respond. She could still hear everything, but she couldn't see anything anymore. Not like there was much to see from the start.

She heard the lock click out of place after a long moment. The metal door gave a groan of displeasure from being moved once again.

A bright light hit against her eyelids before she heard the man, "_All clear_."

_Good,_ was what she wanted to say, but her mouth refused to move and her voice was hidden. _Get out of here while you have the chance_... _Get back to your own people... so I can get back to mine..._

Her mind went blank, sending her into an unconscious state.

* * *

Daryl turned back to the stranger he had been hiding in the closet with to find her head down like she had fallen asleep. She wasn't moving, and that scared him a little.

"_Shit,_" he hissed, making his way back over to her. He checked for a pulse and sighed gratefully when he found it. He looked at her barely unmoving form, "_You decide to pass out now of all times, huh?_"

He knew that she had basically told him to run off and leave her behind, but he had some questions to ask her. He wanted to know how she got into this place without any of them knowing, and he wanted to know if she knew anything about their group. She expected him to keep her as a secret, but he wanted to know more before he made any kind of agreement.

It would've been better to have left her.

But he couldn't have it on his conscious.

She_ did_ kind of save his ass with that walker.

"Let's get you on my back," he knew he was probably going to regret doing this later.

He set his crossbow on the floor for a moment before he sat down in front of the strange woman, pulling her arms over his shoulders. He lifted her onto his back quickly before he grabbed his crossbow and shouldered it on the same side as his quiver of arrows. He adjusted her so he could carry her with one hand so he could use the other to hold his hunting knife.

_She said somethin' 'bout going to the showers..._ he thought to himself. _I guess that would be my best bet to take her for now. Rick would probably have us kill her on spot with all that Tomas shit that happened. Locking her up with those two prisoners would end badly, too._ He took a deep breath before heading for the doorway. _To the showers it is. If only I knew where they were... Let's start at the beginning._

He followed the direction the woman had given him before she fell unconscious, turning left at the door then going down until he met an intersection. He made a right and followed the narrow hall down until, sure enough, he ended up right back where he was when he found her.

"Cat?" he heard someone call. "Cat!"

Footsteps pounded against the concrete towards him.

He turned his attention towards the sound to find a girl that had to have been no more than Beth's age running towards him. He saw the relief and concern in the girl's green eyes that were holding unshed tears. Her red hair matted to her face with what must have been water since there was too much for it to have been sweat.

The girl stopped just a few feet in front of him and pulled out a handgun, "Put. Her. Down."

He stared at the girl with wide eyes, "Now listen 'ere, girly."

"I don't give a shit what you have to say!" she growled at him. "You better put Cat down right _now_. Hand over your weapon, too! I won't hesitate to shoot your ass to the moon if you hurt her."

So that was her name... Cat.

"Alright, alright," he held his hunting knife, by the blade, out to the girl. "Here."

She took it from him quickly, just nicking his thumb from the blade's sharpness and keeping her gun aimed at his head the entire time, "Good, now put her down. Slowly."

He did as he was told, leaning the woman against the wall, as the girl tucked his knife behind her. He noticed how the girl had little to no grime or dirt on her at all. Her hair was dripping, so she had to have just come from the showers.

"Now back up," she commanded, glaring at him with her emerald eyes.

He backed away from the woman with his hands up to show that he wasn't holding any more weapons. The girl hurried to the older woman, checking for a pulse then for any injuries with one hand and keeping the handgun trained on him still with the other.

"Cat?" she asked the unresponsive woman. "Cat, c'mon. We have to go."

"She passed out," Daryl told the worried girl, scratching the back of his neck.

The green glare fell on him once more, "What did you do to her?"

"I didn'!" he defended himself, putting his hands up again. "She pulled me inta' a closet from a herd a' walkers, then she passed out from the fumes. That's what happened, honest."

"If you two were in a closet, then why were you carrying her?" the redhead questioned.

He sighed, "She was rambling something about going to the showers. I wasn' gon' leave 'er in a closet that made 'er pass out."

She stared at him for a long moment, looking him over, before surprise filled her eyes, "You're..."

He quirked an eyebrow at her.

There was no way that the girl could know him. He's never seen her before in his life, before or after the epidemic.

A smirk tugged at her lips.

"What?" his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Nothing," she said. "Go get to where you need to be. I've got it from here."

"You sure?" he watched her put the older woman's arms around her shoulder and struggle to get back to her feet.

"I'll be fine," she nodded to him, her legs shaking from the extra weight. She turned her back to him, causing him to glance down at his knife in her back pocket. "Take it if you still want it. This is your only chance."

Hesitantly, he grabbed his knife from her pocket and put it away. He watched the girl slowly walk a few steps before stumbling and nearly falling.

_Dammit, Dixon,_ he scolded himself as he let out a frustrated sigh before jogging over to them, _what the hell are you getting yourself into?_

The girl stopped, looking at him in surprise. He didn't reply as he picked the light-weighted woman into his arms, her head lolling against his shoulder. The younger female smirked at him.

"Tch," he averted his gaze from her. "You're gon' be eaten by walkers if you run into any at this rate."

"_Walkers?_" she raised a curious eyebrow at him. "Is that what you call them?"

"Yeah," he grunted. "What do you call 'em?"

"Cat's been calling them infected, like they're sick or something," the girl said. "She knows that they're dead, but that's what she calls them."

"Her name's Cat?" he asked, but already knew.

"That's what we call her," she nodded.

_So, there's more than one then..._

"Strange name," he replied.

"Oh, yeah?" the girl looked at him. "What's yours then?"

"I'm not sayin' that," he kept his eyes forward along the hall until they came to an intersection that offered two ways. "Which way?"

"Well," the redhead tapped her chin for a moment before coming over to him and taking a flashlight that was clipped onto the older female's belt loop, "considering that we're heading to the showers, we're going to turn right. Follow me." She flicked the light on and headed down the hall.

He adjusted the woman's weight in his arms then followed after the girl. He didn't know if she was actually leading him to the showers or if she was leading him into an ambush, but he would be able to use this Cat woman as a bargain. He hadn't liked how the girl looked at him like she recognized him from somewhere.

He still wanted his questions answered.


	5. Don't Be Such A Dixon!

**Three months after the Epidemic:**

Cat panted in breathless gasps as she ran into the nearest building through an alleyway entrance, slamming the door shut and quickly locking the deadbolt so she could barricade it with a large desk and some file cabinets nearby. The room smells awful, but at least it was safe for the moment.

Infected had been chasing after her, a huge horde of about twenty, for about ten minutes now. The dead had seen her when she had failed her attempt at sneaking around the large mass of infected while they buried themselves within the carcass of a dead horse and a military tank.

The infected horde pounded against the metallic door, but, thankfully, it didn't budge. It seemed like it could stand for a good while.

Not like she was planning to stick around long enough to find out.

She adjusted the backpack on her shoulder, just about to take a strutting step forward in her victory of out smarting a bunch of brain dead infecteds when she felt something _squish_ under her foot.

"_The fuck?_" she looked down and nearly hurled, but she somehow managed to keep her voice in some what of a whisper. "_The hell is_ that?!"

The sunlight from the window hit the thing on the floor to reveal an infected male. Limbs were chopped off, but the hole in his stomach really caught her eye. A few of the intestines were missing in the bloody mess. Blood was smeared on the floor around him with footprints all over it, so she figured that some infected had found a recent meal. He was dead dead, that was for sure.

Her eyes caught onto something near the corpse. It was a gross pool of colored liquids with chunks in it. The smell of vomit escaped from the spot, but it was fresher than she expected. Someone had recent been there, and possibly still were.

"Gross," she cringed at the vomit and body. "_Obviously, people don't know how to pick up after themselves._"

Growls entered the room.

Instinctively, she dived behind a thick wooden shelf. It was one of those that a person could easily see through the spaces between each shelf, so she peered through it, but quickly ducked back down when a shadow moved towards her.

The shuffling of a few pairs of feet grew louder as they neared her.

She unsheathed the sword at her hip before listening for a number.

Two... four... six... eight.

Four infected found their way into the room.

Four infected were going to meet the next Red Queen from Alice's Wonderland.

She stepped away from the bookshelf, quickly slicing the head clean off the one closest to her. A woman.

The others were men as she went through each one, taking care to stab them in the head but not taking too much time with finishing them off. The woman's head was still making incomprehensible noises in a raspy tone that mixed with the clicking of her chomping teeth.

"_Bad zombie,_" Cat muttered under her breath to keep any infected that were possibly near from hearing her, walking over to her and smashing the infected woman's head with her black combat boot. "_No meal for you. Lily would kick my ass faster that Road Runner on an energy drink if I didn't come back._"

Her ears pricked at the sound of gurgles and groans from another room.

"_Shit,_" she hissed, crouching slightly.

She moved towards the doorless opening that linked the room she was in to the hallway. The noises made by the infected were louder, but they were coming from the direction of another opening in the wall further down the hall. From the view she had of it, it looked like a clothing department of some sort.

Quietly as possible, she went towards the stairway in the opposite direction.

She walked on the balls of her feet, moving fast but trying to stay quiet at the same time. It was never a fun time when she was trying to concentrate on doing just that since her mother use to complain about her stomping throughout the house as a teenager when she hadn't even realized it. Oh, how she use to envy her brother for his quiet footsteps!

A heavy sigh escaped through her nose as her hand unconsciously went to her chest, gripping a pair of dog tags from a silver chain around her neck.

_Damien..._

Her minded wandered briefly to her elder brother.

He had died from a gunshot straight through his temple by a sniper rifle. It was a clean shot that the medics had sewn with stitches, so his head hadn't exploded into a bunch of scattered pieces during the war. He was killed instantly, so he hadn't gone through any pain. The military retrieved his body from the battlefield and brought him home. Men from each base he stayed at—Privates, Specialists, Corporals, Staff Sergeants, Master Sergeants, First Sergeants, Sergeant Majors, Warrant Officers, Chief Warrant Officers, Lieutenants, Captains, Colonels, even _Generals_—had came to his funeral to pay their respects to their dearly beloved Lieutenant. Each and every one of them chipped in to pay for a place on the beach, next to Damien and Cat's mother, for his burial.

She would never forget when the one of the generals came up to her with a grim expression and her brother's dog tags as he told her, "He told us that if he ever died in the field, we would bring you these. He always talked about you, you know. He called you his precious little sister."

Cat shook her head that the memory, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment to send away the unshed tears. It was too dangerous for her to allow herself to turn into a blubbering mess. She could do that later in her tent, but she couldn't do it now.

After a deep breath to calm the ache in her chest, she hurried further up the stairwell. It was basically a spiral staircase with more of a rectangular shape. If there were two people with her, she was sure that if she spread her arms with one arm from the other then they would have easily been able to touch both walls. It was kind of claustrophobic in a way.

She came to a stop in front of a door, resting her hand on the knob.

That's when she heard it.

"_Help!_" a masculine voice cried, though it was a little muffled by infected growls and something banging against a solid object. "_Somebody fuckin' help me! I don't want to become this!_"

"What the hell was that?" Cat questioned quietly, heading over to the railing and looking up. "Is someone up there?"

The banging continued.

"Well," she sighed, "I guess they wouldn't be trying to get somewhere unless there was food."

_I should just leave whoever's up there for the infected to eat him,_ she looked longingly towards the door behind her._ I should just let him be infected bait while I can. Just in and out, gathering supplies..._

She looked back towards the roof.

_I've got to be the stupidest woman in this shit hole world, and Aaron's going to bite me for this. It's not going to be fun, either. Not to mention what Ryder's going to do... And that piece of shit Caleb with that tramp Sabrina!_

She walked away from the railing and headed up the iron steps. She kept her steps quiet, but there was no real need for it. The man was shouting and whining loud enough to mask her purposeful stomps if she wanted, not like she would test it.

* * *

After a few flights, she saw a couple of infected. She gripped the sword in her right hand, knowing that her knuckles were going to turn white. She was going to be one ticked off woman if she finds out that the man she was about to save ended up infected. She figured he wasn't so far since he was still screaming, something about begging, and the three infected trying to get through the door hadn't been able to reach their goal.

_Cat, _she thought,_ you are one stupid woman._

She whistled.

The infected turned around and started for her.

She raised her weapon next to her head where it met with her eye level before swiftly sending the blade through one of the infected's eye socket. She yanked it back out and raised her foot to kick the infected back. The dead dead one landed on his buddies, so the one of them fell down and the other infected man stumbled a bit.

It was quite amusing in a way, kind of like when someone sets up a domino line and one of the pieces decided to move sideways instead of back like they wanted. It just screwed up the rest of the pattern, having to make the creator fix it.

She quickly stabbed the one on the floor so he wouldn't have been able to get her legs. It would have been horrible if she was stupid enough to try attacking the stumbling one while another was trying to sink its teeth into her calf.

The infected man reached his arms out to grab for her, but she smirked and told the dead man exactly what that one domino would have said, "_And a big '_fuck you'_ for you today._"

She sliced the blade straight down the middle of his head until it reached his nose. With a satisfied smile, she shook the loose blood from the sword then pulled out a handkerchief to wipe the rest off. She sheathed it once it was clean enough and pushed the dead infected bodies over railing before wiping off her hands. She pocketed the small cloth so she could clean it later.

Cat went to the door, peaking through it to see...

Nothing.

"The hell?" she asked, but as soon as she said it, she heard a type of clicking noise. She sighed quietly, "_Damn, and I thought I was getting scotch free from this._"

Loving herself for being a sneaky little thing, she easily slipped through the gap in the door that the infected had created with all their pounding. She was able to get a better look now that she was actually outside.

Something black moved on the ground, and she flinched before realizing it was just a belt.

Her eyes traveled to an arm before she found a pair of wide eyes watching her from under a thick, metallic pipe.

"Holy shit!" he cried, his face being washed over with great relief. His voice was a little hoarse, so it seemed like he had been screaming his rants for awhile now. He crawled out from under the pipe and sat with his body turn towards her. "Thank fucking_ God_!"

She offered a friendly wave and a smile, "Hi, how ya' doin'?"

The man did a double take of her, staring for a moment longer in disbelief of her reaction, then his expression turned angry, "How am I doin'? _How am I doin'?_ Are you some kind of fuckin' _stupid_, bitch?! I'm handcuffed ta' a _fuckin'_ pipe because of a_ fuckin'_ pig that had his _goddamn panties in a bunch_, and you ask _how am I doin'_?!"

"So... I guess you're not having much of a good day then, huh?" she playfully rose her eyebrows, lifting the left side of her nose like she normally would have when she snarled minus the ticked off attitude. She laced her fingers innocently behind her back, pushing the door behind her closed with her foot, "Oh, and I'll have you know that I'm a feline, not a dog."

"What?" his brows furrowed in confusion. "The fuck you talkin' 'bout?"

"Well, a _bitch_ is a female dog, you see," she explained, taking great amusement out of the man's reactions. "I'm obviously not a dog. I'm a female, but not a _dog_. I prefer to see myself leaning more towards the felines."

"What_ever_, lady," he muttered. "Are you gon' get me out of here or not?"

She unlaced her fingers, tapping her chin with an index finger, "Hm, I don't know. You called me a bitch, and you seem a little hostile."

He grunted.

With a shrug, she went to the other side of the little shack-like zit of a building that held the door on the roof. There she saw a chair; it was like one of those folding chairs.

The man pleaded to her, "Hey, hey! Don't leave me, lady! C'mon!"

She poked her blond head from the side of the building with a raised eyebrow, "Why not? I don't know you, and you'd be lovely infected bait for me to use to escape with all your screamin' and hollerin'."

The look he gave her was a complete defeat.

"Look," she sighed, rolling her blue eyes at him. "I heard you yelling from the route I was already planning on taking. If I really believed that, then do you really think I would have came all the way up here to save your sorry ass when I could've been done with my job already?"

His head shot to look at her as she propped the folding chair against the door. She returned back over to the side to grab a few bricks that would hopefully keep the chair in place for awhile.

With her childish side still showing, she skipped over to the side of the roof that the man was on. Instead of going by him like an idiot would, she went over to the wall and looked over as though she were checking the infected count.

"Last time I heard, there were a lot of geeks down there," he told her.

"Ohhhhhh, yeah," she laughed drily. "After that little rain cooled them down yesterday, they came out like flocks of birds from a tree."

"Damn..."

"Mhm," she hummed, tapping her fingers against the concreted wall that came only up to her waist. She stood on her toes out of habit, but it gave her a nice view of what was going on outside the store's walls. Infected were everywhere, crawling like ants around a cookie crumb.

She turned around on the balls of her feet so she could look at the man, analyze him. He seemed a little dehydrated, and he really did look like he got into a bit of a fight. Salt and pepper colored hair in a military-cut that made her chest twinge with an ache. He was a little soaked from recent rain. He was just sitting on the concrete floor with his legs folded in the pretzel position. His left elbow propped on his knee with his hand hiding his face from embarrassment or frustration. His right wrist, though, was indeed handcuffed to the leg of the larger pipe he had been under a moment ago.

"D'aw, you poor boy. You look a little stuck," she lifted the side of her nose again. "Would you like some help?"

"No," he said sarcastically, "I think I'd rather just chill out here for a nice while. You know, soak up some sun like them shopper girls."

Cat shrugged, "Okay. It was just an offer."

He just gave her a look that clearly said he was _not_ amused.

"I'm Cat Cheshire," she smiled. "What's your name?"

"Dear,_ Lord_," he looked to the sky with a pained expression, "not _only_ do you send me a dumb blond, but the pussy cat wants to make _friends_ now."

"Ah, ah, ahhh," she sang, wagging her index finger at him. "I'm not technically a _dumb_ blond since I'm not freeing you until I get to know you. I mean, how easy do you think it would be for you to take me down if I just wandered over and helped you out? C'mon, guy."

He smacked his palm against his face, which made her laugh.

She sat herself down, leaning back against the wall. She put her feet together in front of her and brought her backpack to the little circle she made with her legs. She dug around the cluttered bag until she found a bottle of water.

"Here," she tossed the half-full bottle into his lap. "You look like you could use some."

He stared down at the bottle for a moment before shifting to her with another disbelieving gaze. He quickly adjusted himself to unscrew the cap and guzzled down the fresh water. Cat simply smiled a little as she pulled out a granola bar, tearing the wrapping before tossing it to the man.

He set the plastic bottle down next to him, then he shoved the granola into his mouth. He mumbled something, but the food in his mouth made it inaudible.

"Hm?" she tilted her head slightly.

"My name..." he swallowed the mouthful. "It's Merle Dixon."

"No wonder you were so mean," she laughed, but he just looked at her oddly. "So, does this mean I can start saying, 'Don't be such a Dixon!'?"

The man stared at her for a moment again before he barked a laugh, "I've been called a dick, but I have_ never_ heard that one before."

She let her tensed shoulders relax a bit as he continued laughing at her poor humor. He didn't _seem_ like too bad of a guy once she dismissed his appearance, not like she was one to go by appearances anyway. In this new world of the infected, a person had to worry more about the living than the dead, which is why she was curious that he was left handcuffed up here on a department store's roof.

"So, bad boy," Cat smirked, "what did you do to deserve being left for dead?"

"Nothin'," he lied, and she knew it.

"Well, if it was nothing," she did the non-snarl nostril thing again, "do you _really_ think they would have left you up here?"

"I don't need some _woman_ tellin' me shit like this," he growled, glaring at her.

Shrugging, she zipped the backpack back up and shifted it onto her shoulder. She stood up, ignoring him when he asked what she was doing, and headed for the door.

"Wait!" he called. She looked over to him with an arched brow, which caused him to sigh and reply, "Alright, pussy cat, you got me. I beat the shit out of one of the bastards I was in a group with. A new guy, the pig, caught me and chained me to this damn thing"—he tugged at his handcuffed wrist—"so the guy I beat was given the key. The pig and a China man had went out to get a truck or somethin' that could get us out of this shit city. Everyone started leavin', they were goin' ta' leave without me!" He let lose a frustrated groan that sounded more like a growl. "Then that _goddamn_ nigger—"

"_Hey!_" Cat snapped at him.

He looked at her, eyes growing wide from seeing the pure anger in her expression and the deadly look in her blue eyes. It looked like she wanted to take the sword at her hip and slice his head off right there. She didn't, but it scared Merle enough to keep quiet.

"I get that you're pissy, but don't you go talking like that, you got me?" she growled.

He didn't say anything, but his eyes were questioning what caused her to snap at him.

She answered, "I had family that were black."

"Really?" he asked skeptically, looking over her pale skin.

"Yeah," she growled. "I had a large family as a kid, and they didn't care about race. So, I don't want to hear you saying _that_ damn word around me, or I _will_ leave your ass for the infected to get you _right now_."

His eyes avoided hers when she spoke of her family.

It made her tilt her head slightly, kind of like a dog's when they listen to a strange sound, "You weren't close to your family, were you?"

"No, I wasn't," he spat. "The only ones that cared about me was my baby brother and my Ma. Ma's been gone way before any of _this_ shit happened, so all I gots is my brother."

"Your brother, huh?" her gaze lowered to the ground as her hand instinctively went to the dog tags. "You two close?"

"Yeah, I guess you could call it that," he nodded. His voice took an odd turn when he spoke of his sibling, it was softer or just had a little emotion in it. She couldn't tell which one really. "Daryl and I can only survive for ourselves, but I think he was turning into a big softie with that group. He won't be when they tell him that they left his big brother on a roof. Blood is blood, and it's thicker than water."

Cat shook her head, "Sometimes you can make a family with people that aren't blood, you know."

"Those people will leave you," Merle scowled. "Blood is forever."

"My sister isn't blood," Cat shot back, frowning, "and we've been together for about twenty years now."

"How many times has she betrayed you?" He watched her frown shift to shock.

She quickly recovered, sending him a deadly glare, "How many times have you betrayed your own?"

That shut him up again.

He looked away. It was obvious that he hadn't expected her to snap back at him like she had, or that he had ever had a woman have some control over him since his mother died. Not like he had a choice other than to listen to her, anyway. She knew that he wanted to live, and she also knew what it was like to lose a sibling. She didn't want that to fall on anyone.

With a sigh, she told him, "Look, I'm going to scavenge some supplies. I'll be right back, okay?"

"_What?_" His head snapped up to look at her, disbelief filled his eyes. "You're gonna' to _leave_ me here?!"

"I _said_ that I'll be right back," she ran a hand through her dirty hair. She would _kill_ for a shower, or, even better, a warm bath. "I'm comin' back, I promise."

He opened his mouth to object, but she cut him off.

"Do I look like the kind of woman who breaks her promises?" Cat eyed him.

He shut his mouth.

She walked over to him, crouching down far enough to be out of his reach unless she reached for him. She held her pinky finger out to him, "The way I see it, Merle, you have no other choice than to trust me."

He stared at her for a long moment before turning his head away. He muttered under his breath, "_Damn girl's childish, too._"

She grunted at him, pushing her finger closer to his face like she was going to poke his nose with it.

With a sigh and his hand that wasn't handcuffed, he hooked his pinky with hers, which made her break into a small smile. She got to her feet and went over to the doorway, noticing that he wasn't watching her. She figured that he was laughing at her for the whole pinky promise thing, but at least it calmed his nerves about her leaving him for a bit.

_Alright,_ she mentally told herself, _let's get this done and get out. I need to gather what I can and find something that might be able to break those stupid handcuffs._

She eased herself like a cat through the large opening that the infected had created when they banged against the door. She shut it the door so the infected wouldn't be able to get through it as easily.

_Let's see where that one door led to,_ she decided as she went down the stairs to the level she had paused at before she noticed the infected earlier.

* * *

After she slipped through the door, she found herself in a three-way intersection, or trisection as she use to call it. She followed the corridor to her right, being led to multiple offices. She went through each one quickly and quietly, gathering items she figured would be useful like a lighter here or a notebook there. She found a few little possessions, like lockets that had been ripped off victims and even a couple of candles in one woman's desk, which she greedily slipped into the backpack for her and Lily.

She returned to the trisection and walked down the hall to her right again, one that lead a straight line to the door she had came from. The walls were suffocatingly narrow. It lead straight down to a wall with a path that meant she had to turn left to continue.

And she would have had she not heard the infected's groans first.

She swiftly turned around with the door plain in sight and hurried back to the trisection for a third time.

She turned down the last hall.

It led to multiple turns and doors that she checked in case it had any possibilities of necessities. She found a small collection of pocketknives and a few blocks of wood in what she had assumed was a guy's desk, but she couldn't quite figure why their boss would allow them to have it unless they sneaked it into the building. Either way, it was going to help her needs, so she shrugged the thoughts away and slipped the objects into her bag.

She gathered a few pens from random desks, picking at little things again like she had with the other offices.

There were two final doors when she made it to the end of the hallway; one at the dead end and another to her left. She went to the one closest to her first, the sword unsheathed from its holder.

It was empty like the rest of the floor, showing that nearly everyone evacuated the place when the apocalypse started. Most of them were probably in the streets, or the infects that were trying to get back_ inside_ the building. There was a large desk in front of a larger window that hid behind white blinds. The place was a little messy, but it was expected since everyone went into a panic when people started eating each other. File cabinets lined like soldiers against the walls on either side of the desk. A green, tree-like plant near a personal water cooler.

Cat went to the desk, finding a photograph of what she assumed was the guy's family. It was cliché for there to be a picture on the desks, a way for the workers to still have their families near them when they're at work.

Her eyes scanned it, looking over the skinny blond woman with hazel eyes to the young boy around ten with the woman's eyes. The boy had curly, reddish hair instead of blond around his round face, so she figured that he had gotten it from the boss of the building. The man wasn't in the photograph, but it was a sweet thing.

With a sigh, she placed it back on the desk and went through the drawers.

"_Yes!_" she hissed happily through her teeth when she opened the larger bottom-right drawer. "_Jackpot, baby._"

The drawer was filled with little snacks that the boss must have munched on while he worked or during his lunch hour. Cat quickly filled her back with the goodies, grinning like a pirate that found a chest of gold. There was even _chocolate_ in there!

Once she was finished with the boss's office, she left and shut the door quietly. It would be awful if any infected sneaked in there and jumped her after she checked out the other door.

Speaking of which, she hurried over to the final door. Once again, she unsheathed her weapon, having it hiss from being pulled away from its comfortable spot.

Cautiously, she pulled the door open to find a set of stairs that were only partially lit be the hall's poor lighting. She looked deeper, seeing nothing but darkness. She heard nothing be her own breathing, which is what scared her more than hearing the infected.

Cat grabbed a flashlight from her backpack, flicking it on to allow its light to flood the narrow, iron staircase that led up. She went inside it, shutting the door behind her and gripping her blade tightly in her hand. Her nerves were set on an all-time high at the moment, being in a small stone box with stairs leading her way.

The stairs were a single flight that led to another door.

She placed her hand on the metallic knob, and the door started _vibrating_.

_Bang, bang, bang!_

She could hear infected groaning on the other side now.

Quickly, she pulled away from the door.

She didn't know how many were on the other side, and she wasn't going to be stupid enough to possibly walk into a horde of infected.

_I think it's about time I head back to Merle,_ she thought, turning around and heading back down the stairs.

* * *

"Jeez, pussy cat," Merle said as she slipped back through the door, he sounded irritated and relieved at the same time, "you sure know how ta' take your time."

"Bah, shut up," she rolled her eyes playfully, walking over to her spot from before and dropping off her backpack. "I told you that I'd be back, and I am."

"I was gettin' worried that a geek might'a got ya'," he said, but his eyes widened when he realized what he had just said.

Cat noticed it also, smirking, "Aw, did the big bad boy miss the little kitty cat?"

"I jus' didn't want to get stranded up here again!" he defended quickly.

"Whatever," was her reply as she walked over to the other side of the roof.

It seemed like there was a wall-like structure that blocked her from being able to see the other roof, and sure enough, there was another door there. It was a dark greyish-blue with a yellow **CAUTION: WATCH YOUR STEP** sticker on it.

Her brows furrowed and a frown set on her face, "How did I not see this earlier?"

"What're you doin' over there, pussy cat?" she heard Merle call.

She shook her head and walked back over, "I was just looking at a door over there."

"So," he seemed a little excited now, "did ya' find anythin' that could get me out of here?"

Again, she shook her head, "Sorry."

"Dammit," he sighed. She barely caught the glassy look in his eyes before he shut them. "I'm going to die here."

"Don't start that shit with me," she growled, kicking his foot. She looked around, searching for anything really, and found equipment scattered around, "What're those?"

"Huh?" he asked, turning his head in the direction she was looking at. "Those were the fisherman's tools, Dale 'er something like that."

Cat smacked her hand against her face, "Why didn't you speak up about those earlier?"

He shrugged, "I was tryin' ta' git 'em when you popped through the door."

"I did not_ pop_ through," she said, crossing her arms. "I_ slid_ through."

"What_ever,_" he replied. "I figured that you could'a saved me from this."

She went over to the scattered tools, looking over them for anything useful, "So, Merle Dixon was the damsel in distress, hm?"

"I ain't no damn _damsel,_" he growled.

She rolled her eyes with her back turned to him._ He really is an amusing character once you smooth some rough patches_.

She lifted a handsaw off the ground, looking at the blade and seeing that it was clean. It would have been easier if she could just use her sword, but it had germs from the infected and needed to be thoroughly cleansed with hot water and soap.

She went over to Merle, holding the handsaw up in one hand and her other on her hip, "What'cha think?"

"What're you gon' do with that?" his eyes widened slightly.

"Well," she looked at the handcuffs then back to him, "I'm going to cut your hand off."

He started laughing, "I knew that you had a bad sense a humor!"

He thought she was kidding.

She quirked a single eyebrow at him, her lips a thin line.

His laughter quickly died, "You're not kidding... are you?"

She shook her head.

"Why the fuck are you goin' ta' cut my hand off?!" he glared at her again, his features twisting with anger and fear.

"Look," she sighed, "the metal's not going to cut with this?"

"What about that sword thing you got?" his brows were knit together as he nodded at the blade on my hip.

"It'll break my blade."

"But what about_—_"

She interrupted him, "Do you want to get out of here or not?"

He stared at her for a long moment before sighing, "Fine."

"Hey, I guess you're starting to trust me a little," she grinned.

"Don't get use to it," he scowled deeply.

"Alright, now, hand over your belt," she commanded, holding her hand out to him. "You've put your trust in me, so I'm going to put my trust in you. I'm warning you, though, Mr. Dixon. If you try something, you'll know the true wrath of an unamused lady."

She grabbed her bag before she seated herself in front of the the small leg of the pipe, Merle handing her the strip of leather from her right. She nodded her thanks, nicking holes at the other end of the belt with one of the pocketknives so had found earlier. She tightened the the belt around his wrist just above the metallic ring, making sure that he winced before she put it together.

"Is it starting to go numb?" she asked.

"Startin' to," he nodded.

"Good. I want your fingertips to start turning black before I start," she sighed. "I don't know how much time we have before those infected start trying to barge in."

"Where'd you learn to do this?" he asked. "Were you some kind of doctor or somethin'?"

She laughed, "Nah, I don't have the brains for it. My sister and I were some pretty twisted girls when we wrote stories during our teenage years."

"You ain't that old, girly," he raised an eyebrow. "You're talkin' like your a grandma."

"Yeah, I don't think I could bring a child into this kind of world," she said, laughing drily. "I mean, I would love kids one day, but I didn't even want to bring one into the world we had just a few months ago. It's always been twisted, but things just got worse."

"Damn straight," he replied.

"Alright, we're going to need something to soak up the blood when it starts coming out..." she dug through the bag, finding nothing useful. "You know what? Screw it."

She stripped off her shirt.

"What the hell_—_!"

"What?" she raised an eyebrow, placing the grey tee neck to him and adjusting her white tank that was hidden underneath. "I have an undershirt."

Merle's cheeks were tinted pink, but he barked like a bulldog, "You could at least warn a guy when you start taking your clothes off!"

She rolled her eyes, "Can you feel your hand?"

He looked back at it like he had forgotten, "No."

"Good," she replied, pulling out one of the thinner wooden blocks. She handed it to him, "Put this in your mouth."

"I don't do roll like that, pussy cat," he replied.

"Your choice if you want agonizing pain that will make you scream so high-pitched that every drop of manliness you hand will be gone, or if you want to bite on wood." She smiled innocently to him.

"_Damn woman._" He grumbled, taking the small block and putting it between his teeth.

"Good boy," she praised right before she went to work on his hand.

* * *

She felt awful when he screamed, but it was understandable as to why. Merle was clutching her shirt in his good hand, but once the other was gone and he was free from the handcuffs, he immediately pressed the shirt against the bleeding stump. He spat the wood away from them.

She quickly gathered her things, but she flinched when she heard a loud _bang!_ against the door.

She was about to turned her head when Merle answered her internal question, "God_dammit_, the geeks founds us!"

"Let's go to the other way," she offered, which he nodded gratefully at.

They hurried to the other door.

Cat kept the pocketknife in her hand as she whipped the door open, ready to strike if an infected was standing right there, but it was clear. She ushered the wounded man to get in before she followed and shut the door behind them.

She did a quick scan before weaving around the L-shaped room and went into a small hall that had a staircase, which happened to have been the same blue hue as the door. She kept the small knife in a tight grip as she led Merle down the stairs, careful to stay close to him in case he started getting woozy.

Soon, they entered an office hall.

"_Grrr..._"

Cat came to a dead stop, causing the man behind her to bump into her slightly.

He growled and went to say something, but she covered his mouth. She lifted her free hand to her own mouth, holding her index finger to her lips for silence.

He nodded his understanding.

Slowly, she stalked around the small hallway on the balls of her feet, peeking in side.

It was the first room the her left that had a female infected in it. Her eyes were focused on the window, and it seemed as if she were looking at something. Cat noted that her jaw was missing, though. Gruesome.

She grabbed the collar of Merle's shirt and pulled him quickly down the hall towards a larger room before the infected woman could notice the two of them.

Sadly, her plan didn't work out as well as she would have liked because once they got into the lobby, there were two infected men stumbling towards them.

The first was closer, giving her less time to react.

Her movements froze.

Instantly, she was pulled back easily, like a ragdoll pulled by a child, before a wrench struck the infected in the head.

Cat blinked, realizing that _Merle_ had killed the dead man that fell to their feet. She shook the strange paralysis off and went over the to the other infected male, stabbing him in the eye with her pocketknife.

She looked over her shoulder to find Merle smacking the infected one last time.

He glanced up and nodded to her, which she returned the gesture.

He stood up, clutching the bloody shirt against his stump of a hand as he walked over to her, "You a'right?"

"Yeah," she sighed, pulling the knife from the dead infected's eye socket. "Thanks."

"No big deal," he shrugged.

She looked down at her grey shirt, it was barely that color anymore. It had turned into a crimson and she knew it was dripping. Her gaze flickered from the bunched up cloth to him, "Can I see?"

His jaw clenched, but he let her peel the shirt off.

Her nose instantly scrunched at the scent, "The scent of your blood was already freaking me out back in the hall, but you have to keep this one. It's worse without the small bit of blockage."

He nodded again, "I fig'red as much."

"Let's see if we can find anything to clean it up with," she gently placed the cloth back over it, smiling up at him. "The last thing we need is for it to get infected."

"Let's get a move on then," he smirked.

They walked quietly, keeping close together, as they went through a doorless entryway. Merle stayed behind her to cover the rear, and she was in front because she could fight back.

_Hopefully,_ she though as they entered a little kitchen-like area, I won't freeze up like I did. What the hell happened there?

Her ears perked at the _foosh_ sound of flame, jerking her head towards the man behind her. He was setting one of those weird plaster scrapers that was shaped like a rectangle with a handle on the back.

"What in the hell are you doing?" she asked, furrowing her confused brows at him.

He ignored her as he focused on the stove in front of him.

"Ugh," she rolled her eyes, walking over to the window. "Boys and their toys."

There was where she found their exit.

It was a fire escape right _there_. Right at the window.

All she had to do was find a way to open it.

"'Ey, Mer_—_"

"_Goddammit, fucker, shit,_" he hissed between his teeth.

Cat's blue eyes went wide at the scene she saw before her.

The bloodied shirt was on the counter.

Merle was rubbing the blackened scraper against his stump of a hand.

The smell of burnt flesh hit her hard, and she nearly hurled because of it, "_What the hell are you doing, Merle?!_"

After a long moment of him simply cursing, he set the scraper down and looked at her, "It's the best we got for cleanin' at the moment"

"Didn't that hurt?!" she stared wide-eyed at him, holding her own wrist close to her chest at the ghost-like pain that throbbed there.

"Like a fucker," he laughed bitterly, unlatching the belt around his handless wrist. He placed the leather strip on the counter near the still-lit stove. "Maybe the smell of dead flesh will keep the geeks away better than fresh blood."

He had a good point with that one.

"_Men,_" she rolled her eyes.

"Ah, calm down, pussy cat," he patted her head with his hand. "Nothin' can kill ole' Merle other than Merle."

"_Say that again when you get bit by an infected,_" she muttered. She sighed heavily, looking up at him, "I think I found a way out, though."

"Yeah?" his eyes lit up. He grabbed the bloodied shirt off the counter, "Well, let's get to it then."

"You need a fresh one," she told him, taking the cloth away and tossing it on the ground before he could put it back on the wound. His eyebrows rose slightly, eyes looking at her top. She felt her face flush, "_No._ I meant a towel this time."

He said nothing, but he had a playful smirk on his face.

Cat closed her eyes for a moment, resisting the urge to punch him in the face at that single moment. She re-opened them and searching the cabinets for a clean cloth to apply to it.

"Ah-ha!" she grinned cheerfully, pulling out a white hand towel from the pantry nearby. She walked over and placed it on the stump, "Keep steady pressure on it, 'kay?"

"A'right," he nodded.

She led him over to the window, "Okay, so, we have to get to that fire escape right there. If I could find something to break the glass with, like a chair or_—_"

Crash!

He shattered it with his foot, kicking away the smaller thorn-like shards that stuck out until it was big enough for the both of them. He gestured for her to go, "Ladies first."

"Oh, you are going to be such a troublemaker," she groaned, smacking her hand against her face. She obliged to his gesture, though, crawling out of the hole in the window. She made sure to be careful of the glass at her feet. "The guys are going to kill me."

She quickly climbed over the iron railing that guarded the fire escape, leaning back over it to help Merle get out. He stopped on the edge of the building, looking around. She noted that he kept looking towards the ground below.

_Fear of heights, maybe?_

"C'mon," she encouraged, holding a hand out to him. "You can do it."

He sighed, dropping the bloodied cloth and hesitantly taking her hand. He slowly climbed over the rail, "Damn geeks."

"Yeah, well, they like the taste of anything that lives," Cat laughed.

* * *

They quickly made it out of the city, having dodged around large hordes of infected. She stabbed a few infected that had gotten a little too close to her or Merle for her comfort. It had been oddly easier than she expected it to be, but Cat kept her guard up at all times. It was not fun to have something sneak up on her in this world.

They slipped through a hole in the metallic gate.

She holding the fencing back so her could get through instead of fighting with the stupid thing. He nodded his thanks to her. It was obvious that he wasn't the type to publicly be kind to a person.

From that point, they simply followed the train tracks until they came to a bunch of abandoned cars. They checked the vehicles to see if they were unlocked or if they had a working battery. Most were deader than their old owners.

They were about to give up and start walking when they came across a white _Ferenc Builders_ truck, though.

"Let's check this one," Merle told her.

She nodded, going over to the truck and trying the door.

Unlocked.

It swung open easily.

"Sweet," Cat grinned. A shine caught her eye and her smile got wider, "There's keys in here, too!"

"Let's hurry up then," Merle went to the passenger's side, opening the door and getting in, as she got in the driver's seat. "I want to be outta' here 'fore the geeks finds us again."

"You can say that again," she replied, shutting the door and starting up the truck.

It purred into life.

Cat shifted into _Drive_ and pulled away from Atlanta, heading towards her camp.

_Ryder's going to kill me,_ she thought as she listed the groups' reactions when they realized she brought back a stray,_ but he'll consider keeping this guy until Lily checks him out. Hunter's going to be a stick up the ass no matter what I say, the asshole. Aaron will be thankful once he hears that Merle saved me with that one infected. Sabrina's going to bitch and so is Caleb. Lily's going to get the same vibes as me, so I know she'll be on my side._

"I'm going to apologize early when they act hostile towards you," she told him as he stared out the window blankly. "They'll probably call you my stray."

"I'm use to hostility from people," he muttered.

She glanced at him for a second, seeing him glancing at the city behind them, "Your group wasn't too kind, huh?"

"Not even a sliver."

"Well, just play nice is all I have to say."

"Isn't my style," he laughed.

"Okay, treat them like you treat me then," she glanced at him again, taking note that he was sitting up and looking at her now. "You're a pretty cool guy once you get past the roughness."

He rolled his eyes, which made her laugh at him, "Whatever, pussy cat."


	6. Together Under The Big Blue

**Present:**

Daryl sighed, setting the woman, Cat, down on the stone floor of the shower area and leaning her back against the wall. She had been unconscious during the entire trip, but she was breathing. He kept reminding the redheaded girl whenever she started getting a worried look in her eyes when she had glanced at the woman. The younger female hadn't left the older one's side since she found the two of them. It was obvious that the girl cared for her a lot.

She sighed heavily, green eyes on the sleeping face of the other female, "You just had to play the heroine, huh?"

"What 'appened?" he asked, taking the chance to clean his arrows while he had the chance. He was surprised at how clean the shower area was compared to the rest of the prison, but then he figured that the two females had been staying there awhile. "Did y'all get separated?"

"Cat and I were heading to the showers," she eyed him in a glance, the soft Georgia accent riding her words. "A few infected, or _walkers_ as you call them, found us and started chasing us. She told me to get to the showers as soon as I could, which I did. She told me that she'd be right behind me, but she wasn't." She lifted her hand, brushing blond strands away from the woman's face as she mumbled, "_She always lies when she says that..._"

"She probably just wanted to protect you and keep you from lookin' back," Daryl shrugged nonchalantly, feeling the surprised eyes on him. She opened her mouth to what he assumed was going to be a short interrogation, but he answered her mental question, "I'm a hunter. Got some good ears."

"Perfect for eavesdropping with ," she rolled her eyes at him.

"_Hn..._" They both turned their head towards the woman, her face scrunching in annoyance. Her hand went to her face, rubbing it, as she sighed, "_That damn man..._"

"Cat?" the girl's eyes went wide. "Cat, are you really awake? Not, like, you know, infected awake, but you're really awake, right?"

The woman opened her eyes, staring in an analyzing form at the younger girl before they went wide, "Lexi? What the hell are you doing here?"

He noted that there wasn't a trace of that earlier accent that had been clear as day when she was shooting off arguments with the walker. It puzzled the hunter at how one moment she sounded like she grew up in a trailer park then the next she was sounding like a northerner.

"I got away while watching patrol," the girl replied, completely forgetting that Daryl was still in the room. "I came to find you."

It seemed like Cat did also, or she just hadn't noticed him yet, as she sighed again, "I now slightly regret showing you those rooftop tricks."

He stayed silent, hoping to hear if they would give off any information that he might not learn if they knew of his presence again. He watched as the redhead dove into the blond's arms, knocking her onto the floor as they embraced in a sisterly fashion. He felt his lip twitch in a smirk at the sight of the two rejoicing in the fact that they were together again. The Lexi girl crying about how she was afraid that the Cat woman wasn't going to come back from the horde.

"I told you that I was going to be right behind you," the older female replied, blue eyes rolling like ocean waves. "Jeez, sometimes I wonder what kind of things get in that head of yours when you think I'm in a bad situation, then I remember that I probably don't want to know."

The other simply grinned, "Yeah, but you _were_ in a bad situation this time."

"Not really," the blond waved it off.

"Being locked up in a closet with a stranger that could have possibly killed you the moment you passed out isn't a bad situation at all then," he muttered in a gruff tone at their conversation. He finished cleaning off his equipment and put them away.

"I thought I told you to book it," he saw the older one scowl at the fact he hadn't listened to her command.

"A walker could have gotten you by the time pipsqueak found you," he replied smoothly.

"_Hey!_" the youngest of the three of them growled.

Cat groaned, covering her face with her hand once again, "It's bad enough that I had a dream of that old geezer, but now I have to deal with you, too?"

"Old geezer?" the redhead turned her attention back to the blond, not without sending Daryl a cold glare first, with furrowed brows. "You mean...?"

"Yeah,_ that_ one."

"Anyway," Daryl got to his feet from the spot he had seated himself at, "what are you two doing in the prison?"

"Can I answer that after I have a shower?" the woman raised a single brow, picking at the neckline of her shirt. "I feel grosser than a garbage dump."

"I can stand watch," the other female told her.

"Thanks, Strawberry," she grinned, patting the girl's head. It quickly faded back to a scowl, her watery eyes turning to ice with the shift in her mood, "If you got questions, which I know you do, then I'll answer as long as my girl stays alive and untouched. If you lay a single finger on her, I'll come whoop your ass faster than my great-nana could have shouted _Bingo_. Understand?"

He felt himself blink at her, slightly chilled by the tone she used against him. He merely nodded, unable to think of any other kind of response to give the woman that was staring up at him with tsunami-like eyes. Her right hand clenched into a fist just under his nose. _Hot damn, girly is a little feisty, isn' she?_

"Good," she smiled to him in a way that made him think of the Cheshire cat. "I'll return shortly."

With that, the woman ducked behind another wall that had given the room a bit of an L-shape. He heard the squeaks of rusted knobs being shifted before water hissing out of faucets. It wasn't long before steam started to float cloud-like from the other side of the wall.

Irritation filled his face as his eyes narrowed in on the wall. _Stupid girl, thinking she can boss me 'round then even decides that she's gon' threaten me. Girl's out of her goddamn mind, that's what she is!_

A tug on the fabric of his shirt pulled him away from his thoughts.

His attention fell onto a pair of gem-like eyes staring up at him with a somewhat sweet smile, "C'mon, mister. Cat's gonna' get cleaned up, so that means we're on watch."

The way that the girl spoke to him, in that little sister voice, reminded him of Sophia.

He forced himself to look away from her as he spoke, "Jus' call me Daryl."

"Lexi," she replied, nodding as she pulled him towards the entrance of the shower area. She did a quick glance in the hall before exhaling a relieved sigh, "It seems like they've quieted down."

"The walkers were pretty bad earlier?" he asked, running a hand through his messy hair.

"Awful," the redhead visibly shuddered.

"So, what was with the 'Strawberry' nickname?" he asked, pulling away from the topic. _There's not point in makin' the girl anxious.._.

"Oh, that." Her lips pulled into a toothy grin, "Cat says I look like the newest version of _Strawberry Shortcake_ because of my red hair and green eyes."

Daryl tilted his head at her, taking a long moment's look at the younger female. She really did look like the cartoon character with the freckles, hair, and eyes. He found himself chuckling at the resemblance. All she needed was a strawberry-styled outfit.

Lexi puffed her cheeks at him, "Not cool."

"Think of it as me agreeing," he continued laughing.

"Ugh!" she smacked him on the arm, which he only responded with fake pain before laughing again. She shook her head, rolling her eyes at him. Lexi soon looked towards the ground. "Hey, Daryl?"

"Hm?" he hummed curiously, bringing his laughter to a halt.

Her eyes flicked up at him, smiling, "Thanks for saving Cat back there... and for helping me carry her here. It was really nice of you to do that. We're so use to the whole_ kill-or-be-killed_ scenario that sometimes we forget that there are still some good people willing to help out in the survival."

"Yeah, well," he awkwardly scratched the back of his neck with his left hand, his other holding his crossbow over his shoulder, "I got a decent vibe off ya'. If yer not willin' to help out once in awhile, ya' lose what's left of yer humanity, ya' know?"

The redhead laughed at his response, causing him to arch an eyebrow, "Cat's said the same thing before."

"What about my butt?" the voice behind them caused the two to flinch, which made the voice snicker.

Lexi turned around, flashing a grin, "It's a cute butt?"

As Daryl turned towards the voice's owner, feeling his breath catch in his throat at the sight of the young woman. Her blond hair turned a light brownish color from being damp. Her skin cleaned from the dirt and grime of fighting the walkers. She was in the same clothes as before, except for the shirt under her sleeveless hoody. Instead of the dark purple, it was a soft grey.

"You sound just like Ryder sometimes, I swear!"

"Ryder?" his brows furrowed. "There's more of you?"

Cat smacked her palm against her face while Lexi sighed at her. The redhead frowned, hands haughtily on her hips, "Ya' just love to contradict yourself, don't ya', Cat?"

"Shut _up_, Alexis," the woman growled, causing the younger to quiet herself. She sighed, "Well, yes, there are more of us."

"How many?" the hunter felt himself begin to frown, crossing his arms.

He noticed that the pipsqueak was counting digits off her fingers before she held them up and said, "Cat, myself, and five others."

_There's seven of them,_ he thought, _but there's nine of us. We also got those two prisoners with us, too. We could easily take them out if there's a need to, which I really hope there isn't_.

"Look," Lexi's facial features grew an exasperated expression as she looked at the other female, "I want to get back to the others so they know that you're alive. Ryder's been wrestling with Tyler since we got back, and Asha's been arguing with Sabrina. Either way, I have a feeling that someone's going to end up getting knocked out if we don't get back soon."

"I had a feeling that was going to happen," Cat sighed, running a hand through her wet hair. She looked to Daryl, "Do you want to see the others? I promise that they won't bite if you stay near me or Lexi."

Daryl clenched his jaw.

* * *

Cat unlocked the cell gate entrance of the block, taking note that the board was firmly in place like she had expected. The barred, steel door gave a soft groan from being moved, but she didn't think anyone heard it due to the quick, loud tapping noise.

"_Oh! I have all my fingers_,  
_The knife goes Chop, Chop, Chop!_  
_If I miss the spaces in between_,  
_My finger will come off,_  
_And if I hit my fingers, blood will soon come out_,  
_But all the same I play this game, cause that's what's it's all about!_"

Cat felt herself physically relax at the sound of Lenny's voice, him singing to his favorite past-time game when he would drink at bars in celebration of his homecoming from a battle as a marine. Judging by the lyrics, she could tell that he had just began the game. The trio had only missed the first verse of the song.

"_No, you can't use a pencil. You cannot use a pen,_  
_The only way is with a knife when danger is your friend_.  
_And some may call it stupid, some may call it dumb_,  
_But all the same, we play this game because it's so damn fun!_"

The only sounds she heard from the cell block were Lenny's singing and the constant tapping of the knife tip against the concrete table. It was easy to picture the eldest man sitting at the round park-like table, trying his best to lighten the mood of the people around him.

She walked over to the inner gate that was so similar to the entrance they had sneaked through, peering inside to see everyone's back to her. She noted that a familiar curly-haired loudmouth was missing from the party, but she figured that Tyler and Lenny had gotten tired of his struggle and locked him up in a cell. Asha was seated as far away from Sabrina as she could have possibly gotten, Tyler's arm wrapped comfortably around his wife's shoulders. Sabrina sat on the opposite side of the blond man, but a few about a ruler and a half away from him.

"_Oh! I have all my fingers_,  
_The knife goes Chop, Chop, Chop!_  
_If I miss the spaces in between_,  
_My finger will come off_.  
_But all the same I play this game,  
'Cause that's what's it's all about!_"

She waited patiently, feeling Lexi's eagerness to enter the room. She didn't want to startle anyone and cause Lenny to hurt himself because of her reappearance. She assumed that the new guy had understood her silence since he made no attempt to speak as they watched from just outside the larger room.

"_Oh! Chop! Chop! Chop! Chop! Chop! Chop! Chop!_  
_I'm picking up the speed_  
_And if I hit my finger_  
_Then my hand will start to bleed!_"

Once she heard the clatter of the knife hitting the table, Cat whistled.

All the heads turned to look at where the sound came from, four sets of eyes went wide as they stared at her.

"_Holy shit..._" she heard Tyler say, which she smirked in response. His face broke into a huge grin as they all, with the exception of an unhappy Sabrina, hurried to the gate while she unlocked it.

The moment they got over the threshold, she was enveloped in a strong embrace from the couple then from Lenny. The bald man grinned, squeezing her slightly tighter than the other two due to his strength, "I was starting to think you were gone."

She made a "pffsh" sound, batting her hand at the older man when he released her. She smiled back at him, "You guys should have more faith in little old me."

"Who the hell are you?" she flinched at the dangerous growl that came from the married man.

Cat turned to find Lexi standing in front of the hunter with her arms crossed, a emerald glare on her frowning features. Tyler had taken a threatening step towards the two, his hands clenched in fists.

"Ty," she called, "back down."

"But, Cat_—_"

He cut himself short when his brown eyes met her steady gaze. He took control of himself, stepping away from the redhead and the man so he could move towards his wife in a protective motion. Sabrina ducked behind Lenny like a cowardly child.

"Go get my guy," the blond woman ordered, softening her gaze on the older man. "Please and thank you."

Lenny smirked, walking towards the cell that they had locked her best friend up in.

The moment the door was opened, a figure stepped out, looking around until his hazel eyes landed on the alpha of their pack. Ryder instantly ran over to her, gathering her in his arms tightly. She easily return the embrace before the curly-haired man pulled away, cupping her face in his hands and resting his forehead against her own. His eyes glazed with unshed tears of relief, "Will you ever stop doing this to me, you damned woman?"

A slow smile spread over her lips, "I came back, didn't I?"

"I didn't know if you would," his voice was barely above a whisper. "You took too long. I was afraid that... that..."

"Shhh..." she hushed him soothingly, placing a hand on his cheek. "I'm here now, and I'm safe thanks to the new guy over there."

Ryder blinked curiously at her for a moment before he pulled away from her, looking over her head to the hunter. He was awkwardly standing in the center of the crowd, shifting the weight on his feet in an uncomfortable fashion. He would adjust his crossbow on his shoulder.

The hazel-eyed man walked over to the stranger, standing toe-to-toe with him. They both showed alpha male dominance; the hunter showing no fear towards the other man's stance. They kept hold of each others' gazes, which spiked a bit of anxiety in Cat due to the possibility of a fight to emerge.

A breath that she hadn't realized she was holding escaped the woman as she saw Ryder stick his hand out towards the other male. The usual cocky grin was exchanged for a sincerely grateful smile as they shook hands, "Thank you so much for helping her. I don't know how I'd be able to thank you enough, but seriously, man. Thanks."

The hunter seemed thrown off by the reaction, but he grunted his reply.

Lexi stepped up next to the stranger, tugging on his shirt, "Daryl, are you going to be spending some time with us? I mean, I don't think anyone would object if you did."

Something pulsed through Cat when she heard the name, causing her to walk over to the redhead, "_What_ did you call him?"

Wide, green eyes looked up at the taller woman, "D-Daryl?"

Her own eyes snapped to the hunter, staring into his blue hues. Merle's words echoed in her head: "_Daryl and I can only survive for ourselves..._"

"Daryl...?" her brows furrowed as the man's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head due to the sudden inspection._ It can only be a coincidence that he has the same name. It has to be..._

The man quickly recovered, narrowing his eyes on her, "Is there somethin' I can help ya' with?"

_Don't tell him,_ she warned herself._ Things could turn ugly if he decides to turn aggressive for information. There's the possibility of him not being who I think he is, but if he is and is like Merle in any way..._ Cat internally shuddered at some of the memories she thought about when bringing "Merle" and "aggressive" in the same paragraph. _Don't make him suspicious either, you idiot!_

She pulled away from the taller man, "No, nothing. I was just thinking on if I've ever heard the name before, but I haven't. I'm sorry."

"No... problem," he took a small step away from her. He turned towards Lexi, giving her an awkward pat on the head, "And, as much as I'd like to stay, pipsqueak, I have to get back to huntin'."

Cat knew that he was lying since he had been stalking the hallways of the building instead of outside. He was planning on returning to his own people, but he was also trying to keep the fact that they were in the prison a secret from her group. She let it slide since she didn't want to make him any more suspicious than she already had and since her group already new about his group outside.

"Good luck," Lenny nodded. "I heard that the bucks around here have been mostly scared off by the infected."

Daryl grunted and nodded, "It's not surprisin' with how many walkers are 'round 'ere."

"Walkers?" Asha asked, speaking for the first time during the entire arrival. "Is that what you're calling them?"

"Yeah," he lifted a single shoulder in a shrug. "It's better than nothin'."

"Walkers and infected," Tyler shook his head. "Damn, I hope there's nothin' worse out there."

"There's always the living," Sabrina chirped in.

Ryder sighed, "Kill the dead, fear the living."

"Damn straight," the hunter replied, receiving a grin from the other man. "Anyway, I should be headin' out 'fore it starts gettin' dark."

"If you ever need somewhere to stay for awhile," Lexi smiled at him, "then you're welcome here."

Daryl barked a dry laugh, "There ain't no way that I'm sleepin' in some damn cage, kid."

Cat had separated herself from the crowd, leaning against the concreted wall with her arms crossed. She smiled to herself at what the hunter had said, her shoulders bobbing slightly in a silent chuckle._ He's more of a Dixon than I thought he was. There's no way that he couldn't be Merle's brother now.  
_

They all waved to the stranger as he left their cell block.

Lexi was chattering with Asha, Tyler, Lenny, and Sabrina about how surprised she was with how well things actually went with the guy. They sat around the table once again as Ryder made his way over to the leader.

"Cat," his hazel eyes narrowed in on her, causing her to look up at him, "let's head to the roof."

With a nod, she followed.

* * *

The two sat silently for awhile, merely watching the clouds as they drifted across the blue sky. Cat lay next to her dear friend, arms folded behind her head and noting as he did the same. She looked at each puffy white, wondering how the beautiful days stay around when the world had turned so awful.

"Hey..." Ryder muttered. She heard him shift his position on the rooftop's ground, turning her head to find him on his side facing her. "What got you all freaked out about that guy? I mean, other than the fact he was a stranger to us and all."

She snorted a small laugh, feeling the corner of her lips tug into a half-smile, as she turned her attention back towards the sky, "You're always so observant when it comes to me, huh?"

"Hey," he had a pouted tone in his voice now, "if I'm not paying attention, then who is?"

"Point taken," she replied simply. A heavy sigh escaped her chest, allowing her eyes to close, "I think that guy is Merle's brother."

"_Merle?!_" she could feel the bewilderment gaze on her without needing to look at the man next to her. If he had been drinking anything at the moment, she was sure that he probably would have unintentionally spat it out at her with the response. "Why on this Hell would you think that he was _Merle's_ brother?"

Under her eyelids, Cat rolled her eyes, "I use to talk to Merle when we had watch together. I had gotten to know him, and his brother's name was Daryl. A hunter, too."

"It could just be a coincidence, you know," he was trying to argue against a feeling that she knew was right. "This guy wasn't even half as much of an ass that Merle was."

She opened her eyes, sending her friend a dark glare, "Merle was_ not_ that much of an ass, only to you really."

"No," Ryder laughed. "It's more like he was only _not_ an ass to you and Lily."

"Probably because I _saved_ his ass from that rooftop, and I actually_ took_ the time to get to know him," she shot back, taking her right hand away from her head and placing it on her stomach. "You know, that whole responsibility of rescuing someone's life."

"Whatever." He chuckled at her, "You and your strays."

A sly smile curled on her lips, "Besides, I'm surprised that you took so well to Daryl so quickly. You're normally trying to rip their throats out on sight."

"I guess," the response caused Cat to look at him. He sighed, "I was just really relieved to have you back here with me, you know? I was grateful to the guy."

A wave of heat warmed her face, but she blamed it on the sunlight, "Like I said, I'm here and I'm safe now."

"That's the best thing that I could ask for," he grinned at her. His hand finding hers and their fingers interlocking, "We can push through a horde of infected and fight off the humans, too, right?"

"As long as we're together, we can get through anything, Ryder," she squeezed his hand, smiling toothily at him. Her eyes giving one last glance to the sky, "It's you, me, and the group until we find Lily."

"What if we don't find her?" His voice seemed hesitant on asking the question.

"We will," she replied. "I know she's out there, and we just have to find her."


	7. Release The Walkers

"Damn," Lexi groaned as she adjusted the scope for the sixth time and wiped it off with her sleeve for the eighteenth. "I hate morning mists. They always screw with my lens, you know that. It gets on my nerves!"

Lenny chuckled at her, wiping the forming morning dew off his hairless head, "Ah, c'mon, Lexi. If Cat didn't think ya' could handle it, she wouldn've put ya' on watch."

"Oh, I can do it," she glanced sideways at him, her emerald eyes flashing with irritation before they went back to her watch. "I'm just getting frustrated with this damn fog. She knows I hate having to constantly wipe it dow_—_Hey, what's that?"

"What is it?" the older man asked, taking note of how the teenager started to lean farther over the edge. All trace of humor immediately leaving his tone and was replaced with complete seriousness. "Careful, Lex."

"_I know what I'm doing..._" she grumbled lowly. "Hey, Len, I think someone's down there."

"Do ya' think it's one a' 'em new folk?"

"I don't know for sure," she replied, trying to lean in more despite Lenny's hand on her shoulder and zooming in the scope. "This fog is too thick near the ground. I can't get a good look on them, but I know that they're by that cage where those infected are locked up."

"I'm gon' go wake up Cat," he told her, pulling her away from the edge of the building. "You back away some from that ledge. She'll have my ass and my manhood handed to me if you hurt yourself."

"Fine, fine," she puffed out her cheeks as the ex-marine hurried inside. Once she knew he was gone, she instantly went back to her position, "Who the hell _is_ that, though?"

The fog was growing thicker and thicker as the sun rose from its own slumber, giving the moon a chance to rest. It was becoming infuriating to the redhead that her strengthening inability to see was giving her a bad feeling. When she had seen the new group, she had only felt that way when she saw the prisoners, and now only two of them were seen. It had been obvious that the newcomers had either killed them or locked them down somewhere, and Lexi placed her bets on the prior situation. No matter how kind-looking the officer seemed through her lens.

"Lexi," the voice behind her caused her to flinch, but she quickly recovered and whipped around to see the seriousness on the blond woman's face as she pulled a sleeved-hoody over her torso. Lenny stood behind her, looking like an intimidating bodyguard for a bed-headed celebrity. "What did you see out there?"

"I think I saw someone's silhouette down there around the infected cage," she reported without missing a beat, her expression stone-faced. "I can't be sure with how much the fog's thickened, but I don't think it's going to be anything good." Concern quickly flooded the girl's green eyes, "I've got a really bad feeling about this, Cat."

"Alright, I want you to stay up here and keep watch of things. Trust your judgement," the older woman ordered, a scowl forming on her lips. She turned to the man of the party, "Lenny, you make sure my girl has anything and everything she needs in case things turn ugly. I'm going to go wake up the others and let them know what happened."

"It could've been nothin'," Lenny replied, rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably when a pair blue eyes landed on him. "I'm jus' sayin' that it could've jus' been a shadow or somethin'."

"Or it could be an intruder," Cat shot back, the authoritative tone still clear in her voice. "I don't want to take any chances, and you know that. There's no such thing as being too cautious with living in a prison full of infected."

He gave her an agreeing nod, eyebrows raised, "Well, when you put it like that..."

"Lexi, if something doesn't feel right, don't be afraid to shoot," was the last order the woman spoke before she ducked back inside to go awaken the others.

"Ryder's going to flip out, Tyler's going to start yelling about how he knew we shouldn't have trusted them, Asha's going to calm him down, Sabrina's going to bitch like usual," the girl listed the most common reactions of their group members.

"Probably," Lenny sighed. "Do you think you've got enough magazines?"

"Yeah, but it'd be awesome of you if you got me a bottle of water," she smirked, keeping her left eye focused and scanning the area.

"Whatever,_ princess,_" he laughed and left her to her business for a moment as she laughed at the nickname the group had given her when she started adapting traits that were extremely similar to their leader's. Of course, though, it was Ryder who had nominated_ Kitten_ as a nickname, but they all decided that _Princess_ was better suited for her.

* * *

"Get the _hell_ out of bed, lazy ass!" Cat hissed, kicking the metallic bed frame with the bottom of her boot in an attempt to catch the attention of a certain curly-haired man, who had his back towards her.

A groaning Ryder rolled over to face her, his eyes barely opening in proof that he was half-asleep. He held his arms out to her, "Are you finally going to snuggle with me, my little kitty cat?"

For a moment, she was completely silent as she stared down at him, processing the words, before her face blew up into a bright red color. She grabbed him by the collar of his grey shirt and yanked him from the bed to the floor so his face met the concrete, "Boy, you better wake your ass up before my boot finds its way there."

She quickly walked out of the cell, knowing her face was flushed from what she had just heard. She hurried over to the couple's cell, stomping her feet a little when she was within hearing distance. _Ugh! How dare he ask such a thing?_

She entered the small cell, kicking their bed frame also, "Guys, wake up and get some clothes on. There's trouble."

The blond man's eyes instantly shot open before his head turned toward her. She knew that his arm had tightened around his wife when he heard the younger woman make an annoyed sound in her sleep. His tone defensive when he spoke, "What's goin' on, Cat?"

"Don't completely know yet," she replied. "Lexi saw something this morning, and she's got a bad feeling 'bout it."

"A'right, we'll be there in a moment," he nodded to her. "I'll get Asha up."

"I'll leave it to you then," she mimicked the motion as she started towards the cell's exit. "I already woke Ryder up, so do me a favor and give him a good kick in the ass when you see him."

"I don' know what it's for, but awesome," she could hear the smirk crawling on his face.

_I may have to make a run to let the newbies know,_ she thought as she exited and hurried back to her own cell. _It's not going to look good, but I will if I have to_. She snatched her binoculars out of the black duffel bag under her bunk. She froze when her hand brushed against flannel fabric. She looked at the old thing, _You better be watching over me. I'm going to really need you_.

She released a heavy-weighted sigh when a light draft passed through her, mentally taking it as a symbol that his soul had somehow heard her small plea. Even if there was the large possibility of it just being a breeze, she liked to take things like that as a way of his presence still being around her. It comforted her, and it gave her the strength she needed to protect the group.

"Hey, Ty_—_Ow!" Ryder's voice yelped, causing Cat to smirk as she pushed the bag back under her bed and headed over to the railing to watch. The brunette of the two men was rubbing the back of his head, glaring at the blond, "What the hell what that for?!"

Tyler merely threw an arm around his still sleepy wife, who yawned nonchalantly at the exchange, and grinned, "Cat told me to hit ya', so I did."

Cat's lips curled when she saw the color flush from Ryder's face before it turned completely red, "I... I-I..."

"Hey, Cat!" Tyler turned his head to her position of leaning her forearms against the railing on her forearms. "Are we headin' upstairs?"

"Yeah, let's go." She straightened herself, popping a few bones alined in her spine as she did, and walked over to the ladder leading to the roof, "We're going to have a small meeting before I decide on whether or not we're going to meet the new kids on the block."

* * *

The fog had faded away, leaving a soft grey-blue sky with white clouds dotting it. The white truck growled metallically as Carol backed it up on the opposite side of the gravel road from the toppled grey bus, which had the red station wagon parked just a couple feet in front of that, in front of the tower's box-shaped gate. The pale green _Hyundai Tucson_ was already sitting patiently inside for someone to bring it inside the large field of the prison. Despite the noise from the vehicles, Daryl was surprised that there weren't very many walkers around the outer layer of metallic fencing.

"Okay," Rick said, "let's get the other car in. We'll park it in the west entry of the yard."

"Good," the hunter replied. "It's startin' to look like a damn _vacancy_ line."

"After that," the sheriff ignored his comment, "we need to load up these corpses, so we can burn 'em."

"It's going to be a long day," T-Dog sighed.

"Where's Glenn and Maggie?" Carol asked as she made her way over to him and Rick; T-Dog a short distance behind them. "We can use some help."

Daryl point towards one of the towers standing tall near the main gate entrance to the prison, "Up in the guard tower."

"_Guard_ _tower?_" Rick asked, confused, as he took a few steps closer. "They were just up there last night."

_This'll be good then._ He cupped a hand near the side of his mouth and called out to the obvious couple, "_Glenn! Maggie!_"

A dark figure popped up inside the shadowed tower windows before the door opened to reveal a certain _shirtless_ Asian stepping out, pulling his pants up, "Hey... what's up, guys?"

"Comin'?" Daryl asked amongst the light chuckles around him. They all knew what the two had been doing.

"What?"

He gave a small laugh with the others before calling out louder, "You _comin'_?"

The smaller man turned back towards the doorway, as if he were discussing it with the brunette inside. Daryl didn't want to wait for him to get his balls handed back to him.

"C'mon," the hunter said, turning away like the other three of the party, "we could use a head."

He barely heard Glenn's, "Y-Yeah, we'll be right down!"

As she laughed, Carol batted him on the bicep. She, Daryl, and Rick were walking back towards the entrance toward until T-Dog called out to the sheriff. All three of them came to a halt for the response that followed.

When Daryl saw the reaction on Rick's face change from an amused smile to a frown, his mind flashed back to the woman he found in the hall. His nerves tightened, causing him to stiffen until he saw the two prisoners that were still alive making their way over. He relaxed slightly but still kept his guard up.

"Come with me," were the only words the sheriff said as he walked towards them, closing the distances with Daryl and T-Dog closely behind him for back-up.

The two men in the dirty, dark grey-blue work jumpsuits barely made it out of the main gate before the trio caught up to them.

"That's close enough," Rick told them, causing them to stop in their tracks. "We had an agreement."

"Please, mister," the awkward redhead, Axel or something, crossed his arms tightly to his chest like he was cold and uncomfortably shifted his weight on his feet, "we know that. We made a deal, but you gotta' understand... We can't live in that place another minute, you follow me? All the bodies... People we _knew_. Blood, brains everywhere. There's ghosts."

"Then you move the bodies out," Daryl commented plainly, as if it were nothing new.

By now, it really wasn't anymore.

"Should be burning 'em," T-Dog added, in the same tone.

"We tried," Axel said, shifting against as he stood next to the silent Oscar. "We did."

"The fence is down on the far side of the prison," the taller prisoner finally said, clenching and un-clenching his hands. "Every time we drag a body out, those things just line up. So, droppin' the bodies and runnin' back inside."

"Look, we had nothin' to do with To-mas and Andrew," the usually more timid of the two started walking closer to Rick, who placed a ready hand on his gun, as he spoke, then he stopped just a couple few away. "Nothin'. You tryin' to prove a point, you proved it, bro'. We'll do whatever it takes to be part a' your group, just please, _please..._ don't make us live in that place..."

"Our deal is non-negotiable," the sheriff said firmly. "You either live in your cell block, or you leave."

"I told you this was a waste of time," Oscar turned his head to the disappointed Axel before turning to Rick. "They ain't no different from the _pricks_ who shoot up our boys. Do you know how many friend's corpses we had to drag out this week? Just threw them out like... These were good guys... Good guys that had our backs against the really bad dudes in the joint, like Tomas and Andrew. Now we've all made mistakes to get in here, chief... And I'm not going to pretend that I'm a saint, but _believe me,_ we paid our do. Enough that we would rather hit that road than go back into that shit-hole."

_Nice speech,_ was all Daryl could think off as he watched the alpha-like eye contact between the two men. He caught the small nod-like jerk of Rick's head before he turned around to face the two men, the hunter shaking his head to deny the obvious question the leader was thinking, that stood as his back-up then turning his head back to the two prisoners.

"Daryl," he said, causing the hunter to straighten slightly, "take them to the gate."

With a nod, and slight understanding of what the leader of the group was thinking about, he herded the confused prisoners to the entrance gate that they had just removed the vehicles, with the exception of his brother's bike and the green _Tucson_, and locked them up.

"C'mon, dude," Axel whined, but Daryl ignored him as he walked away towards the group on the other side of the tilted bus.

The hunter's eyes flickered towards the roof of the E Cell Block, and he saw a small figure. His nerves stiffened at the conversation from yesterday.

_"Daryl!"_

_The hunter looked over his shoulder to find the little redheaded teen jogging up to him. He paused his destination for a moment so she could catch up, "What's goin' on, pipsqueak?"_

_"I probably shouldn't tell you this," she panted for a second, looking up at him. A playful smile gracing her lips, "I mean, Cat would probably have my ass handed to me if she could hear me."_

_"Then don't tell me," he grunted, turning away from her once again. "Simple as that."_

_"Wait!" she smacked his shoulder, pausing him and causing him to look back at her again. "She tells me to always trust my judgement, and my judgement is saying that you're a pretty good guy, so I'm going to tell you."_

_"Then tell me." He barely glanced at her smaller figure next to him, "Just no promises that I'll be listenin'."_

_She made a noise that caught his attention before she spoke, "Look, I'm telling you this because I believe that you won't try to harm us without a good reason to."_

_He remained silent, listening while trying not to look like it._

_"Just keep an eye on the roof above E," she told him. "If there's a sense of danger, then you'll see me trying to flail my arms at you."_

"Are you serious?" he heard Rick say, bringing his thoughts back to where he was. He turned the corner of the fallen bus to find the cop speaking with T-Dog, "You want them livin' in a cell next to you? They'll just be waitin' for a chance to grab our weapons. You... You want to go back to sleeping with one eye open?"

"I never stopped," the darker man replied, keeping his attention focused on the leader. "Bring them into the fold. If we send them off packin', we might as well execute them ourselves."

"I don't know..." Glenn breathed out, shaking his head. "Axel seems a _little_ unstable."

"After all we've been through... we've fought so hard for all of this," Carol added in. "What if they just decide to take it?"

"It's just been us for so long," Maggie agreed in a quiet southern drawl, her eye squinted against the sunlight. "They're _strangers_... I mean... It feels weird all of a sudden havin' other people around."

"You brought us in," T-Dog put in his argument, turning his gaze to look at the farmer's daughter.

"Yeah, but you turned up with a shot boy and your arm, so you gave us no choice," she defended smoothly.

"They can't even kill walkers," Glenn commented.

"They're convicts, bottom line," said Carol.

Again, T-Dog was going to stand up for them, "Those two might even have less blood on their hands than we do."

"I get guys like this." Daryl shook his head, growing tired of the conversation that seemed to be going nowhere. He needed to quiet them so he could get over to where Lexi was. "Hell, grew up with them. They're degenerates, but they ain't psychos. I could have been in there with them just as easily as I'm out here with you guys."

"So you with me?" T-Dog asked around the small group.

"_Hell_ no," was the hunter's immediate response. "Let them take their chances out on the_ road_, just like we did."

"What I'm sayin', Daryl_—_"

He was cut off by Rick, "When I was a rookie, I arrested this kid. Nineteen years old; wanted for stabbing his girlfriend. The kid blubbered like a baby during through the interrogation, through the trial... _suckered_ the jury. He was acquitted for insufficient evidence, and then, two weeks later, shot another girl..." The cop shifted his posture as he stared down T-Dog, "We've been through too much... Our deal with them stands."

With that, he walked away, showing the final decision.

Daryl followed right behind him, glad to be done with the conversation, with the others after him.

"Move the cars to the upper yard," Rick ordered Glenn, who caught the set of keys that the hunter tossed him. "Point them facing out. They'll be out of the way and ready of go if we ever need to bail." He turned to T-Dog, "Go the prisoners a week's worth of supplies for the road."

"Might not last a week," he grumbled.

"Their choice."

"Do they really have one?"

"Hey... 'Ey." Rick's footsteps against the gravel paused briefly before turning around to go after T-Dog. "Who's blood would you rather have in your hands? Maggie's? Glenn's? Or their's?"

"Neither," was all he replied with.

Daryl just walked over to his brother's bike, turning the key into the ignition before swinging a leg over the seat. Axel had said something to him, but his only response to the redhead was, "Don't even look at it."

The prisoner made a few comments about possibly giving the bike a tune-up, but, again, he was ignored. Daryl merely drove the bike over to where Rick told them to park the vehicles. _I gotta' get over to Lexi and find out what the hell is going on with her._

* * *

"Lexi," Cat hurried back through the door, slipping her hunting knife in her boot, "status report."_  
_

"Well," she said, not bothering to take her eyes away from the scope, "it seems like the newbs had a bit of a squabble, but they somewhat resolved it. There's two prisoners still alive, but you already know that. Those two are locked up at the gate entrance. Reasons are unknown. Current events involve that Asian, the cop, and Daryl sneaking through a hole in the fencing to take a step out."

She took a moment to process the teen's words, "... _What?_"

The redhead popped the scope off her weapon, sighing, and held it out to the older woman. She pointed to the apparent direction that the three men were, so Cat steadied herself into a crouch before she peered through the lens to check it out. Sure enough, the girl was right. The trio were patrolling the outer grounds.

She turned her gaze towards the courtyard to find vehicles being moved it. She took note of the people wandering around there, paying special attention to the old man on a pair of crutches and the woman with a bulging stomach, holding her lower back as she walked next to the older gentleman. With them, she assumed, were the two children Lexi had spoken of.

"_Alright, Hershel!_"

She flinched at the sound of the man's voice. It was different from the ones she heard back in the cell block, so she assumed it was the Asian's. She handed back the scope to the smaller female on the roof, "Keep watch, my girl."

"You got it."

Cat turned away and walked back towards the doorway that led to their own cell block.

"Oh, _shit!_" she flinched again when she heard Lexi's curse, hurrying back over.

"What happened? What's going on?"

"Infected out of the cage," she growled through clenched teeth. "I knew I saw someone out there this morning!"

"Shoot them down!" the woman ordered, sprinting over to the open doorway. She shouted down where she knew everyone was, "Infected in the courtyard!"

She heard the gunshots firing from below, but they were much quieter than Lexi's sniper shootings. The group bolted to the roof, starting up their our shooting range at their walking targets, but Cat noticed one of the women left behind.

"Shit, shit, shit," she hissed, heading towards the door.

"Cat," Ryder called, "where the hell are you going?!"

"I'm not letting them just die!" she shouted, bolting back inside and hurrying down the ladder so she could get to the other door.


End file.
